Massachusetts reports successful health exchange launch
Massachusetts officials said the state’s new health exchange is working, though they cautioned there might be hitches as the site receives more traffic during the week, according to the Associated Press.
Overall, Maydad Cohen, a special assistant to Gov. Deval Patrick, said the site had been reliable during the first two days of open enrollment. More than 57,000 visitors used the site. About 7,000 people were able to determine their eligibility for plans that comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.
“During the weekend, we saw excellent performance of the website,” Cohen told reporters Monday. “We had a very successful, very exciting weekend.”
The exchange’s debut comes a year after a disastrous rollout last year. Problems with the Massachusetts health exchange caused the state to place hundreds of thousands of residents into temporary Medicaid coverage and led to a costly overhaul of the website. The state fired its original contractor for the site, CGI, as a result.
Originally, the cost of the website was estimated at $174 million. Now, that number is $254 million.
Read more of the AP’s coverage on the Boston Herald’s website.
