Open enrollment round two gets mostly positive rollout

The second open enrollment period for health insurance exchanges began Saturday with an overall smooth rollout, though some consumers reported challenges signing up and some states had to deal with unexpected glitches.

There were 100,000 applications for health coverage completed and submitted on Healthcare.gov on the first day of enrollment, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said on "Meet the Press," according to The Hill's Healthwatch.

"The vast majority of users are having a smooth experience during the first day of open enrollment on Healthcare.gov as they fill out applications, browse and enroll in plans," HHS spokesman Aaron Albright said in a statement to USA Today. "We expect to experience the normal issues that any other complicated technology project does upon launch and have seen a small number so far."

About six insurers selling plans in exchanges across the country said that Healthcare.gov enrollment was smooth for new consumers and people who already have coverage, The Wall Street Journal reported.

But some consumers faced glitches and hiccups. For example, people in Virginia were having a hard time logging into their accounts, retrieving old passwords and proving their identity, reported The New York Times.

Meanwhile, some state-based exchanges experienced enrollment challenges. Washington officials temporarily took the state's marketplace offline because it wasn't correctly calculating consumers' subsidies. They brought the site back online by Sunday. And Vermont and California both had to address glitches in their exchanges that prevented consumers from completing their applications, noted The WSJ.           

That's a far cry from last year's open enrollment, which was plagued with ongoing glitches and enrollment obstacles.

To learn more:
- read The Wall Street Journal article
- see the USA Today article
- check out The New York Times article
- read The Hill's Healthwatch article