December 3, 2013--HealthCare.gov

I'm here to tell you that the Obamacare Website isn't working all that well.

How do I know? Because I tried it out Monday afternoon, a day after the new-and-improved version came on line.

A few things--

I already have all the health insurance I need: Medicare Parts A&B, but not Part D, for prescription drugs, because I left the Ford Foundation with a sheath of extra coverage that bridges gaps, reimburses for deductibles,  and pays for all sorts of things that fortunately I have thus far not needed and therefore know nothing about.

So my trying out the site, HealthCare.gov, was in the spirit of reporting. Not just complaining from the sidelines about how Obama and his people screwed it up or ranting about how Republicans, who want to see the whole program crash, should have been happy to see the Website crash rather than blaming Obama for making it hard for people shopping for Obamacare coverage, coverage the GOP doesn't believe in in the first place. Such is our current state of partisan hypocrisy.

With trepidation I entered HealthCare.gov and the homepage popped up in about a second. So far so good I happily thought.

I clicked on an orange circle within which it said--

                                     APPLY NOW
                               For Health Coverage

I was next asked to indicate the state in which I lived. I fibbed, saying Maine since I knew that if I mentioned New York I would be referred to the NY State Website because New York is one of 14 states that created its own health care exchange. Maine, with a Tea Party governor, is not cooperating.

Again in about a second I was prompted to click on "Apply Online," which I proceeded to do. Next, cheerily I was told "Let's Get Started" so I clicked "Get Started" and was promptly asked to "Create a Marketplace Account." This required me to share a few items of personal information--my name, e-mail address, things of that kind.

Fine. I did that. All one-two-three. I smiled, thinking, leave it to those Obama people to finally get things working.

Then the trouble began.

I needed to create a username and a password. Without reading the fine print (there was quite a lot of it) I did my usual thing--in general, not wanting dozens of different usernames and passwords I use the same ones for my bank accounts, charge cards, the cable and electric companies, my newspaper delivery service, my insurance policies, etc.

So I typed in STEVZWRG as my username and STSTST as my password (these are both fictitious in an attempt to protect whatever is left of my privacy). But in an instant (the quickness more evidence of the Website fix), I was informed that both were "Invalid." That I must--

Create a username that's at least 6 characters. It may include uppercase and lowercase letters. Usernames are case-sensitive. It also must include either at least one number or one of these symbols: _ @- /

And for the password, I was told to--

Create a password between 8-20 characters. It must include at least one uppercase letter and one lowercase letter. Passwords are case-sensitive. It also may include symbols, but not these: =? ^ ( )'"/ \ &;. Your password can't contain your user name.

For the username I seemed to get it right--I typed in STEV1zwrg@. But not for the password. I had thought since they seemed to want a lot of characters (between 8 and 20, to make things extra secure, I'll go for the limit--20.

So I entered (or thought I did)--STstStst=?st&;\\ZWRG^ and attempted to repeat it, which was required--STstStst=?st&;\\ZWRG^, thinking again, since I attempted to be careful and extra secure, since I had followed all the rules, I would be fast-tracked to the heart and soul of the Website where I would learn about all my options, the costs, the differences between the platinum, gold, and silver level policies and, ultimately, as the full test of HealthCare.gov, when they looked me up via their interfaced and all-powerful computers and software, they would discover I didn't need any more coverage at all since I had Medicare and the Ford Foundation taking such good care care of me.

But again, before I could complete these naive thoughts, the system flashed in blaring red, "Invalid Password. Invalid Password."

A bit frustrated, since I thought I had taken great pains in inputting and confirming a password, I deleted what I had entered and set about to try again. But because I had forgotten to write down the password I entered, I needed to come up with a new one.

On a notecard, I wrote STZstz&;&;ZWRG^"/Zwrg3 and with considerable care repeated it in the window provided.

Halfway through the confirmation, the Webpage again flashed "Invalid Password. Invalid Password."

Now, quite frustrated, I thought to give it one more try. Since this was just an exercise to see how well the Obamacare Website was working--not my ability to come up with passwords, putting notions of security aside, I opted for the minimum, an 8 character password--STZ"ZERG.

That should work, I confidently thought, but again it, it felt as if I myself, was being declared to be Invalid.

I was instructed to log off and come back latter, better prepared to make the Website work for me.

As you might imagine, I am not looking forward to that. If I do, I'll be sure to get a 10 year-old to help me come up with valid usernames and passwords.

If I do (unlikely), I'll let you know how I do.

In the meantime, I need a drink.