The Obama administration is confident the healthcare law is primed to bounce back after a rocky start.
“It got off to a very bad start with the website in October and November, and that was very discouraging to people,” White House adviser Phil Schiliro said in an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos.
{mosads}Schliro went on to compare ObamaCare to Sunday’s AFC Wild Card football game, in which the Indianapolis Colts recorded one of the biggest comebacks in NFL postseason history against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“But in a lot of ways, it’s like a football game,” Schliliro continued. “You can have a bad first half and a good second half and that’s what matters. It’s how you end the game … Nobody’s going to remember them behind. In years to come, they won’t remember the bad website in the beginning.”
With the front-end of the HealthCare.gov working better for most consumers, the Obama administration has trumpeted a surge of enrollments in late December, the slowed growth in healthcare spending and personal stories of those who have obtained health insurance for the first time.
Still, challenges remain.
Healthcare professionals are expecting a crush of people seeking to use their new plans this week.
The Obama administration and insurers have had their hands full processing the flood of late applications, and some experts warn that some who believe they purchased a plan will arrive at a hospital or doctor’s office in 2014 and find out that they’re not in the system.