Healthcare.gov website still plagued with problems

Three weeks into www.healthcare.gov’s website launch, people are still struggling to sign up.

President Barack Obama addressed the nation Monday about the website’s issues. He said he is mad about the problems, but argues the Affordable Care Act as a whole is working as planned.

Nineteen million Americans have tried to log onto this website to see what affordable care options are available.

So far, approximately half a million people have successfully signed up. This has Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler wishing the administration would have taken more time to think through the health care bill and website.

However, that did not happen and now delays are seemingly unavoidable for citizens logging onto heathcare.gov.

“There’s no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process, and I think it’s fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am, precisely because the product is good, I want the cash registers to work, I want the checkout lines to be smooth, so I want people to be able to get this great product,” said President Obama.

That product cannot be seen, however, until one successfully logs onto the website.

“There is no reason that it should not be working. Clearly they need to move to a different vendor or start over again,” said Hartzler.

The president said they are working with the brightest minds to fix the glitches. However, with for a website that cost more than $500 million to build, it has some concerned, since companies like Twitter and Instagram were able to connect with the world for far less than half of that amount.

“If it was a private business who had done that, they would have been fired.” said Hartzler.

Those that need to buy insurance have until March 31, before they will have to a pay a tax penalty.