As a software designer and the CIO of a technology company, I can see at once that there are many issues with healthcare.gov. Many of the user interface mistakes are classic ones that I see beginning programmers struggle with.
For example, making a mistake during the signup process may doom your application to eternal purgatory.
But wait - you actually can signup, and here is how...
Beginning programmers, and this site appears to me to be written entirely by beginning programmers, often make one really really bad assumption: that everyone is perfect and will do everything on the web perfectly.
As a result, they don't spend enough time testing what happens when things go astray.
As a case in point, all my previous attempts at using healthcare.gov ended in failure. Not only that, but a couple of accounts I created don't even work at all anymore, and no attempt to password reset or resurrect the account succeeds.
But, knowing what I know about software design and the behavior of poor quality software, I just whizzed through the whole process and am browsing plans now in only minutes. (All glorious 102 plans I might add in the state of Florida, with prices (I don't qualify for a subsidy) significantly LOWER than before the ACA).
Here is the secret to a happy life on healthcare.gov.
1. Create a new email account on gmail, outlook.com, yahoo, whatever. It has to be a new account that you have never used on healthcare.gov where broken accounts go into a kind of purgatory, never to emerge again.
2. During the signup process, be sure to choose usernames and passwords that are at least 8 characters in length, and containing a mix of upper and lower case letters and numbers. But no other special characters.
3. TRIPLE CHECK everything as you type. Any sort of common mistake can "break" your account so it never works again. Be especially careful with the account verification step where you answer questions.
4. ALWAYS enter social security numbers, even when the application says its optional at this stage.
The objective is to fill out an application perfectly and correctly on the first shot, in one sitting. This is the only way that crappy programs work correctly, but knowing that, we can rig the game in our favor.
I've tried this periodically, and today for the first time everything worked perfectly. A disclaimer though - I didn't actually signup for health insurance; I was just browsing. So its possible that the last step would fail, but that's actually a fairly straightforward piece of software to develop so my hunch is it would have worked - most of the time.
5 years ago when I moved to Florida, I purchased health insurance for a family from Blue Cross. It cost $1300 a month. The signup process was grueling and almost unbelievable. The application was 40 pages of faxes. They sent verification forms to every doctor we had been to in the last decade. It took 6 weeks to approve us. The insurance was only fair at best with high deductibles and copays and lifetime caps. A colonoscopy for example cost me over $2,000 out of pocket, even with blue cross.
By contrast, at healthcare.gov I just spent 15 minutes (Heh Geico eat that!) and was presented with 102 plans from about $900 for the cheapest bronze to about $1500 for the cheapest platinum, every one of them vastly superior to what I had 5 years ago and which took 6 weeks of phone calls and sweat to secure.
So in Florida at least, I am loving healthcare.gov. Oh and one other thing, don't forget to tell that starving nephew of yours with no job - not to worry that your red state didn't expand medicaid. Just OVER-estimate your income for 2014. Unlike underestimating for a subsidy, there is currently no penalty for fibbing by saying you make too much!
Edit: That last paragraph needs some explanation. Its fraudulent to knowingly lie on the form, but projecting your next years income is based on estimates. If you can reasonably expect to qualify for a subsidy in 2014, you will not have to pay it back or be penalized if you fall short. The reverse is certainly not the case. (If you make more next year your subsidy will be trimmed or eliminated.) Thanks for the comments pointing out my in-artful language!