The 300

Actually, the number is 326 Marylanders who have successfully enrolled in the Health Exchange over the last six days.  Over 13,000 others have established accounts and are exploring their options.  However, the numbers may have been much higher if not for a multitude of computer glitches that occurred when the new system was launched.   What is an abysmal start and a lot of people should be embarrassed by that outcome.  But, it's not only Maryland; it's across the country.  I read the other day that a White House advisor said that if they didn't have the volume of people attempting to enroll that they would have been fine and the systems would have never crashed.  I told Bill Byers, WMHS CIO, not to ever use that as an excuse for an IT system failure at our health system.  I was mostly joking since I know that Bill would never use excuses to explain away failures in any of our information systems.  

Reports are that there continues to be a steady interest in enrolling in Maryland, but some can't due to system failures, even today.  On the positive side, Marylanders are looking to enroll and that is a good thing; unfortunately, as a State, we are failing them.  Hopefully, the system glitches will be corrected in the short term and credibility with Obamacare and the Maryland Exchange can be restored quickly.