Headaches abound but Washington Health Exchange slowly improving

When Darla Varrenti decided to start the Seattle-based non-profit Nick of Time Foundation, she gave up health insurance because she couldn’t afford it. So she was among the millions of Americans thrilled to be able to sign up for Obamacare. But it’s taken three months and hours of frustration to finally get her policy processed.

“It’s been maddening,” Varrenti says. She was able to successfully start her application on the Washington Health Plan Finder months ago. But with the site repeatedly down or malfunctioning, Varrenti was stymied from completing her application every time she tried.

“The site repeatedly asked for the same information. It locked me out because I tried to log in too many times and had to get a password reset. It was ridiculous. There was no way to know what had actually gone through.”

Varrenti tried again the weekend before Christmas but couldn’t complete her application. With the Dec. 23 deadline looming for coverage starting Jan. 1 and no resolution, she called the Washington Health Benefit Exchange for help.

“They connected me with one agent who then connected me to enrollment. The first time I waited 27 minutes and was then somehow disconnected,” she says.

Varrenti called back and got put on hold again, this time for 42 minutes, and then she was somehow disconnected again. “I wasn’t dumb enough to call again,” she says.

“We continue to see extremely high volumes,” says Washington Health Benefit Exchange spokesman Michael Marchand. “Our call center has seen volume that was forecast for California. We were routinely seeing more than 25,000 people calling in any given day leading up to December 23.”

Marchand says many of the calls have become more complex and take longer as customers deal with issues such as income verification and tax credit eligibility. But he says the organization has more than doubled the size of its staff to handle the influx.

“It’s a testament to the high amount of interest from the state,” he says. And he says both the phone system and website continue to be improved, with more than 37,000 applicants signing up since Dec. 13 alone.

Still, he admits the long waits and potential online glitches won’t all go away anytime soon.

“It’s important for people to realize we’re building something in real time,” he says. “The success of what we’re doing won’t necessarily be nailed down in the first ten weeks, it’ll be more like the first 10 months and the first ten years.”

As for Varrenti, she finally got her application processed Friday after KIRO Radio contacted the Exchange on her behalf and she will be covered as of January 1. And Marchand says provisions are being made to provide coverage to others like her who began their application before Dec. 23 to also receive coverage in January rather than being made to wait another month.

But Varrenti says even though she’s relieved, she’s still upset for all the others still struggling to get through the system.

“I’m thinking about the people who aren’t as persistent as I was, who aren’t computer savvy, who don’t have the time to spend on the phone for two hours waiting for these people?”

But in the long run Marchand insists it will be worth it for the millions who previously couldn’t afford or qualify for health insurance.