Federal health-insurance website still has problems but 1 million people have managed to register on it

When enrollment began on Oct. 1 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal government's health-insurance website was flooded with uninsured Americans seeking coverage. Two weeks later, visits to the site have dropped 88 percent, and reports show that less than 1 percent of people who went online the first week were able to successfully obtain insurance, Juliet Eilperin reports for The Washington Post. The use of the site, and state-based sites, is a topic of an Association of Health Care Journalists webcast to be held Thursday at 2 p.m. ET.

"Of the 9.4 million unique visitors to the site during the first week, roughly a third attempted to register, and 1.01 million completed registration," according to analysis released by Kantar US Insights from a study by nonpartisan research firm Millward Brown Digital. The group, "which tracks the online activity of 2 million Americans—or 1 percent of all Internet users in the United States—said that roughly 36,000 Americans signed up for an insurance plan online the first week." (CNN graphic: penalties for not being covered by health insurance)

The Obama administration said those numbers are inaccurate, but hasn't released its own data. It says that information will be released on a monthly basis. Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Joanne Peters told Eilperin: “HealthCare.gov received 14.6 million unique visits in the first 11 days, showing the intense demand for quality, affordable health insurance. While traffic is down somewhat from its peak on day one, it remains high as Americans continue to seek to learn more about their new coverage options.”

Aneesh Chopra, who served as the White House’s first chief technology officer during President Obama’s first term, told Eilperin that the important number was that 1 million Americans created an online account. He told her, “Account creation is always the holy grail. That’s the moment that matters. In one week, a million people began a process that will result in affordable coverage. That means a lot of people are going to ultimately get the product.” (Read more) (Millwood Brown Digital graphic)