The Obama administration claims that it is working night and day to fix problems in an ObamaCare website that had a rocky rollout this month.

In a blog post on Sunday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claimed that it has called in "some of the best and brightest" to help to fix the technical complications.





ADVERTISEMENT

“Since launch, when we first recognized these issues, we have been working around the clock to make improvements,” the department wrote.





The website, which is supposed to help people shopping for health insurance on new marketplaces called exchanges, has been plagued from the start.

When it was first unveiled at the beginning of October, many people were unable to register or log on to shop for coverage. Early speculation was that only a handful of consumers had been able to successfully buy insurance.

The Obama administration has said that the early glitches were partly a sign of the overwhelming interest in the site. They have compared the bumpy rollout to the introduction of new tech products, which tend to have initial problems before the bugs are worked out.

According to HHS, the site has logged more than 19 million unique visits.

The administration maintained on Sunday that its efforts to fix the website were paying off.

“We have updated the site several times with new code that includes bug fixes that have greatly improved the HealthCare.gov experience,” it said. “Today, more and more individuals are successfully creating accounts, logging in, and moving on to apply for coverage and shop for plans. We're proud of these quick improvements, but we know there's still more work to be done.”

The department said that some fixes, such as a temporary virtual “waiting room” meant to deal with the surge in traffic, were ultimately more confusing than the problems themselves.

“We will continue to conduct regular maintenance nearly every night to improve the experience,” it wrote.

Late on Saturday, the administration announced that 476,000 people had applied for insurance through the site. However, HHS did not announce how many of those people had successfully been enrolled.

The early problems with the website’s rollout were partially buried by the 16-day government shutdown and crisis about lifting the nation’s debt ceiling.

The glitches, however, have increased the pressure on HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen SebeliusThe Hill's Coronavirus Report: Mike Roman says 3M on track to deliver 2 billion respirators globally and 1 billion in US by end of year; US, Pfizer agree to 100M doses of COVID-19 vaccine that will be free to Americans The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Former HHS Secretary Sebelius gives Trump administration a D in handling pandemic; Oxford, AstraZeneca report positive dual immunity results from early vaccine trial Coronavirus Report: The Hill's Steve Clemons interviews Kathleen Sebelius MORE. Lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzLoeffler calls for hearing in wake of Netflix's 'Cuties' Health care in the crosshairs with new Trump Supreme Court list 'Parks and Rec' cast members hosting special reunion to raise money for Wisconsin Democrats MORE (R-Texas) and Pat Roberts Charles (Pat) Patrick RobertsThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by National Industries for the Blind - Trump seeks to flip 'Rage' narrative; Dems block COVID-19 bill GOP senators say coronavirus deal dead until after election Trump says he'll sign USPS funding if Democrats make concessions MORE (R-Kansas) have called for her to resign.

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on failures in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but Sebelius declined to testify.

Republican opponents of the law have said that the troubled rollout was symptomatic of larger problems with the legislation.

“This is a very mechanical thing,” Sen. Roy Blunt Roy Dean BluntOn The Money: Trump undercuts GOP, calls for bigger COVID-19 relief package | Communities of color hit hardest financially by COVID-19 | Businesses, states pass on Trump payroll tax deferral Trump undercuts GOP, calls for bigger COVID-19 relief package Businesses, states pass on Trump payroll tax deferral MORE (R-Mo.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The most expensive website and it doesn’t work.”

“When you can’t even put together the package to sign up, that shows how big a job it is for the federal government to manage 16 percent of the economy and people’s health insurance plans. It’s not where the federal government should be,” he added.