President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the “kinks” surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.
https://twitter.com/AnnieLowrey/statuses/392317239166132224
.@AnnieLowrey And now a different message. "I'm sorry. Due to extremely high call volume, no customer service representative is available"
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) October 21, 2013
https://twitter.com/silviakillings/statuses/392317571351187456
@AnnieLowrey "Please call back later in the day or during the weekend."
— Scott Conroy (@ScottFConroy) October 21, 2013
RT @philipaklein: Can't make this up. Got through 800-number, followed prompts, and got referred to http://t.co/q7gyHgxRKR.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 21, 2013
In his speech, President Obama said that there was “no excuse” for the problems plaguing the website and assured Americans, “These problems are getting fixed.” He also said that the issues with the online exchanges do not reflect flaws in the legislation itself, which he said offers a high-quality product.