The exchanges were set up for each state to help individuals and small business owners shop for and buy health insurance coverage. Iowans who got on a computer and logged onto the state exchange at eight a.m. first got a sort of “wait” message indicating there was a high volume of traffic, then another message popped up on the computer screen a couple of minutes later. It read: “The system is down at the moment.”
A spokesman for Iowa’s Insurance Commissioner says consumers have six months to log onto the system to sign up for coverage, so computer problems on the first day should be resolved in plenty of time.
The Iowa health insurance exchange is only taking applications from individuals in the first month. Small business owners looking for insurance plans for their employees must wait ’til November.