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Source: Pioneer Press, St.儲存倉 Paul, Minn.Oct. 02--Minnesota launched its online version of the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, several hours after similar state and federal websites debuted across the country and struggled to handle an influx of traffic.But Minnesota's health exchange insurance marketplace, not available until later in the day, appeared to be running smoothly, albeit minus some features still to come.A trial use of Minnesota's site, .mnsure.org, showed that a 40-year-old shopping for coverage in St. Paul could select between 66 different health insurance plans as well as 14 dental plans.Monthly premiums for the 40-year-old ranged from a low of $115 to a high of $245. The hypothetical consumer could find five products from Golden Valley-based PreferredOne and two from Bloomington-based HealthPartners with monthly premiums below $150.Consumers using the website can view options according to their ZIP code and a number of preferences, such as whether they want a plan with a health savings account or access to a gym membership discount. Monthly premiums and the number of options depend on a person's age, where they live and whether they smoke.A 40-year-old Minnesota consumer living in downtown Rochester, for example, has only one option through MNsure -- a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota policy that's much more expensive than in St. Paul, with a monthly premium of $326."I really do think that people are going to have a positive experience with it," said Sen. Tony Lourey, a DFLer from Kerrick who carried legislation this year to create the state's health insurance exchange -- one of 16 created by individual states around the country in response to a federal mandate.The new health insurance marketplaces are part of the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires almost all U.S. adults to have health insurance by next year or pay a tax penalty. The online exchanges are an option for individuals and small businesses purchasing coverage.The federal government, which is operating one massive health insurance exchange that covers 36 states, including Wisconsin, also launched its marketplace Tuesday. But federal officials acknowledged during a conference call Tuesday afternoon that many users were running into a glitch that blocked them from creating accounts on the website."We certainly had a high volume of consumers creating accounts, and we got word of users having issues," said Marilyn Tavenner of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, during a conference call with reporters. "With any new product launch, there are going to be glitches as things unfold."Insurance policies purchased by Dec. 15 through an exchange will take affect Jan. 1. People covered by the federal Medicare program and those in large employer health plans with good benefits will not use the new marketplaces.There's no penalty for a coverage gap of less than three months into next year, so a person who buys health insurance up until March 31 and keeps it for the rest of the year could still comply with the coverage mandate.In recent weeks, MNsure officials have stressed the t迷你倉最平meline -- and the idea that consumers don't have to shop right away -- while disclosing a number of website features that won't be available immediately.The majority of people expected to use MNsure are covered by the state's public health insurance programs, but those consumers won't be able to fully enroll in the Medicaid and MinnesotaCare programs by using the website.Minnesota small-business owners, defined as those with 50 employees or fewer, can start shopping for group coverage right away, but their employees won't actually be able to select a plan through the system until December.As of Tuesday, thousands of insurance agents and a new group of advisers, called "navigators," still hadn't been certified to help consumers use MNsure. State officials said a directory with the names of helpers would begin to be available Wednesday, but the federal government's website already had a listing Tuesday for consumer advisers in Wisconsin.While Minnesota was one of the last health exchanges to launch on Tuesday, earlier starts in Colorado, Maryland and Washington resulted in websites that struggled to handle traffic and had to shut down."We had some unexpected bottlenecks as we experienced some very heavy traffic to the site," said Danielle Davis, the director of communications for Maryland Health Connection.By Tuesday afternoon, Colorado's website was reporting 55,000 unique visitors. In its first 90 minutes of operation Tuesday, California's health exchange had more than 1 million website hits.In the District of Columbia, more than 3,300 accounts in the individual and family market were created Tuesday, and nearly 400 people completed applications for coverage. Of those, 175 had requested invoices, and four people paid for coverage that begins Jan. 1."It's an indication of the pent-up demand for quality, affordable health care," said Richard Sorian, a spokesman for DC Health Link.Federal officials said they would not be offering such numbers on Tuesday. A trial of the federal website -- available at https://.healthcare.gov/marketplace/individual/ -- started on Tuesday morning with a wait of about 10 minutes before a login in page finally appeared.The system then repeatedly got hung-up at a screen where users were to establish security questions. After a call of more than 20 minutes, an operator said the website was having trouble handling a high volume of traffic and that consumers should try later.In Balsam Lake, Wis., northeast of the Twin Cities, Julie Baryluk said she wasn't even trying on Tuesday to use the federal health exchange website, even though she's gone through training and certification to help consumers use it."I know that, with any system, you don't go in on the first day," said Baryluk, a family health benefits counselor in the Polk County Health Department. "I've asked people to please be patient."Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at 651-228-5479. Follow him at .twitter.com/chrissnowbeck.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at .twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存