A survey of Americans’ Internet use found that visits to the federal health-care exchange website have dropped off dramatically — 88 percent between October 1, the opening day, and October 13, according to the Washington Post. Obviously this isn’t entirely surprising, since there was such a burst of visitors on Day One, but in the first week, 9.4 million Americans visited the site; in its second week, that was down to 4.1 million visitors. The analysis, by Kantar Insights, was based on work from consultant Millward Brown Digital, which had earlier concluded that 36,000 people signed up for the health-care law on the federal exchanges, used in 33 states, in the first week. Less than half of 1 percent of visitors have enrolled in a health-care plan, a performance Millward Brown Digital called “atrocious.”


One anonymous administration official called the numbers “inaccurate,” but HHS spokesman concurred about the overall number of visits, saying “HealthCare.gov received 14.6 million unique visits in the first 11 days, showing the intense demand for quality, affordable health insurance. While traffic is down somewhat from its peak on day one, it remains high as Americans continue to seek to learn more about their new coverage options. We will be releasing enrollment figures on a monthly basis similar to how we release data for the [Children’s Health Insurance Program] and Medicare programs.”

Here’s what the first four days of enrollment looked like, according to Millward Brown Digital’s analysis: