HealthCare.gov is hoping to get a second chance to make a first impression. Thirteen and a half months after its infamously rocky launch, the ObamaCare federal health insurance exchange website opened for shopping on Sunday night. People can't enroll (or re-enroll) for next year's insurance policy until open enrollment starts Nov. 15, but the site will allow people to comparison-shop beforehand. The federal site serves 37 states.
Federal officials are encouraging people to return to window shop instead of automatically re-upping their plans from last year, because prices have dropped on a number of policies. The pre–open enrollment browsing was supposed to open Friday, and while "functionality has been ready for a while," says Andy Slavitt, HHS principal deputy administrator, "obviously we've been continuing to test it."
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