Maryland Says It Has 326 Enrollees In Health Exchange

The federal government, which is operating exchanges on behalf of 36 states, hasnt given enrollment numbers yet for its HealthCare.gov exchange, which, as The Wall Street Journal reported today, has been plagued by design and software problems . GOP’s Unheralded Victory on Spending Maryland is one of 14 states running its own exchange. With a Democratic governor and Democratic-dominated legislature, the states commitment to making the law work was never in doubt, but it ran into considerable technology problems early on. ( This Washington Post story has more details .) On Monday, the state said it is still working through technical issues and conceded that MarylandHealthConnection.gov may be inconsistent, especially during periods of peak usage. Those problems are reflected in the Maryland numbers released Monday , the first of what the state said would be regular data releases. The state said 13,532 accounts with verified identity were created as of Sunday evening, and it has seen 170,000 unique visitors to the website. But only 326 people were actually enrolled in new health-insurance plans. The state has about 600,000 people without health insurance, according to the Census Bureau, so it has a long way to go to make a dent in its uninsured rate.
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Health savings vs. flexible spending accounts

If that’s the case, you’ll be able to opt into a health savings plan. And you should, say tax and human resource professionals. “If you’re in the high-deductible plan, certainly you should open your (health savings account),” says Jackie Perlman, principal tax research analyst with H&R Block’s Tax Institute. “Put something in it. You can’t mess it up.” HEALTH BENEFITS: Is a high-deductible health plan right for you? The plan lets you designate a certain amount of your paycheck to be funneled into the account pretax.
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