White House may enhance direct enrollment under Obamacare

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House said on Monday that it's exploring an alteration in the president's health care law which would enhance consumers' ability to shop directly for coverage through insurance companies.

"We are also working to set up direct enrollment through insurance companies so that Americans could choose to enroll directly through the insurance company," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. "And that's…another method by which we can reach the same point that is the goal here.

"We're interested in engaging or opening as many channels for enrollment as possible because the goal here is not to have the best possible website — and we're far from that," Carney said.

Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers can go directly to insurers to buy new policies that meet minimum benefit requirements, but only plans that are also available on the federal and state-run exchanges come with potential subsidies.

Insurance providers are supposed to be able to direct subsidy-eligible consumers from their websites to the federal marketplace "hub" to verify the consumer's income, but insurers are having the same problems with the hub that consumers who go directly to HealthCare.gov are having.

The White House later underscored that under changes being contemplated, subsidies would continue to need to be reconciled and secured through the hub.

Insurers are hesitant to take on income verification, and Republicans and administration officials have expressed concerns about keeping consumers information private. Insurers also don't want to bear the burden of determining subsidies out of concern that they can be left financially responsible for consumers who end up receiving subsidies less than they estimate.

"It's the end here that matters, not necessarily the means," Carney said. "The means are important and we have made clear our shared frustration with the problems that the website has experienced, but we have to make sure that there are other means available for the American people, even as we make improvements to the website.

Carney also confirmed that the Obama administration expects about 80% of HealthCare.gov users, to be able to successfully apply and enroll in coverage by the end of the month. The White House had previously set the end of November as a benchmark in which they expected most users to be able to successfully navigate their way through the glitch-plagued website.

"Others can decide whether or not 80% is a vast majority," Carney said. " I think in most contexts it is. "