It would appear, despite the President's urging, that Obamacare's helpline is living up to its mnemonics [7]. As The National Review reports [8], President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the “kinks” surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. [7]
Indeed, Mr. President, 1-800-318-2596 to you too.
...
After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.
For the record, just called 1-800-318-2596, got a busy signal.
— Annie Lowrey (@AnnieLowrey) October 21, 2013 [9]
.@AnnieLowrey [10] And now a different message. “I’m sorry. Due to extremely high call volume, no customer service representative is available”
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) October 21, 2013 [11]
@AnnieLowrey [10] “We’re sorry, but due to extremely high call volume, all of our customer service representatives are currently busy.”
— Silvia Killingsworth (@silviakillings) October 21, 2013 [12]
@AnnieLowrey [10] “Please call back later in the day or during the weekend.”
— Scott Conroy (@RealClearScott) October 21, 2013 [13]
In his speech, President Obama said that there was “no excuse” for the problems plaguing the website and assured Americans, “These problems are getting fixed.” He also said that the issues with the online exchanges do not reflect flaws in the legislation itself, which he said offers a high-quality product.