For everyone that is disappointed, discouraged, upset, sure the ACA is going to fail because the website is a mess, etc, have patience.
I did nearly this exact same thing for a living, for 10 years.
I worked in a personal and casualty insurance company computer support department. When I first started working, we were using a DOS based program on floppy disk. That's how small the application was. In just a couple years, we went from that, to a Windows based program, which required a CD, then to a web based application system.
It was essentially this same type of system that the Healthcare.gov site is working with right now.
Join me below the squiggle of healthcare confusion.
My job was to help independent insurance agents use our program, then website, to pull quotes and enter applications for prospective and current insureds. We had a base of 5000 agents. Most of whom had been selling our insurance and those of other companies, for years. They pretty much knew all the answers, just had to learn a new system to do the entry.
They STILL hated the system. Why? Because it was new, it was glitchy, and many of them didn't understand computers.
I can tell you that all the issues that people are complaining about with the Healthcare.gov website not working properly is normal, and does not, in any way, mean it's screwed up, "they" screwed up or whatever frustration induced invective one would be inclined to throw out.
While I was required to answer phone calls for support, I was also tasked with stressing the system when we had a new roll out. (And this happened every time we had a major change, as well) We had about 20 or 30 folks to test a system that would service about 5000 agents. So, we would do things like release it to an internal server, and we'd all try to log in at once. We'd hopefully find all the issues that would cause. Sometimes it would cause issues, sometimes it wouldn't. But there were always issues we couldn't replicate once it went live. We couldn't possibly afford every type of server to test, or every kind of computer and operating system, etc. We just did our best.
Then, when we got calls for the problems, we'd try to trace it down. I can assure you, start time was 7:30 am, and the phones would already be ringing on launch day, before we were logged into our computers. We would have voice mail from agents who were trying to get into the system throughout the night. It was always a mess.
I'm assuming that they had more than 20 people to test this, but given that Republicans have tried everything to make it difficult to get this program implemented, it's possible they didn't have enough. Not every browser will work 100%. You have to remember that every computer system is different. If you installed a certain program on your computer, just having done that could possibly conflict with the ability to enter information on Healthcare.gov. And there isn't a way to predict every possible computer configuration to prevent every problem. For instance, my mother's computer has problems with just about every place she goes. It's old. It's junk, and her internet is slow. That will be the case for many people who need insurance on the exchange because they can't afford insurance up till now.
My advice to all those who are trying to get in:
Relax. You have 3 months before the insurance is even effective. It won't change a thing if you get it today, versus not getting in until next week or next month. You have 6 months before open enrollment ends.
Call or use the chat feature to calmly explain the problems you're having. Even if they can't help you fix it today, it will give them more information about what needs fixing. But remember, the phone line and chat system are just as overwhelmed. You may not get to talk to someone today. It's better to put it aside for another day than to get red in the face trying to get support today.
Every wingnut in the country is trying to get into the system to see how "bad" it is. They're making it worse. (Self fulfilling prophecy)
Remember, this is probably the worst day the customer service reps will ever have. Be kind to them.
Don't get discouraged. It will get better.
9:34 AM PT: I'd like to direct you to a comment posted below by greblos explaining in a little more technical detail why the system is overwhelmed.
One of the hardest things to load test is in fact user registration, where the most problems are reported in other threads. You have to generate names and addresses, they need to be different from each other (databases sometimes perform differently if all data is the same vs a good mix of realistic data), and the app that does authentication and registration is often tied into other third party apps (ours has a zip code to county calculator that pops up a county pulldown if it's a rare zipcode that has multiple counties, and interacts with our single signon system at the end, squirting all the data into a LDAP server that normally isn't used at all by our site).
This comment reminded me that ACA site is dependent on other sites, and requires them to be able to handle this load, as well. If they can't, the system won't work seamlessly.