healthcare.gov

Workers on the "tech surge" to fix the error-riddled website have just days to meet the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline for a functioning site. Public confidence in HealthCare.gov has already taken the kind of hit that may be hard to overcome.

Lara Imler was one of the first people in Alaska to sign up for health insurance on HealthCare.gov. Turns out, the website miscalculated her subsidy. She wants to start over and get a new plan. But a stubborn software kink is standing in her way.

The health care law is helping low- and middle-income Americans pay for their insurance. Where does that money come from? In part, it is a matter of the well-off helping pay for those who have less. But that's not the full answer.

President Obama's proposal — designed to help reverse the recent cancellation of some health policies — seems to leave the decision up to insurance companies. But there are other decision-makers in the mix who are just as important: state regulators.

Government's top tech officials — including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park — showed up on Capitol Hill to give a status report of the troubled HealthCare.gov system. As the administration unveils enrollment numbers, the tech officials outlined technology metrics of progress.

HealthCare.gov's troubled rollout highlights a systemic problem — the way governments purchase and plan for tech projects. Even President Obama is now calling for procurement reform. But a handful of places are finding ways to solve the problem.

A small business owner and her husband expect to save big on health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Their monthly health insurance bill will drop by more than half once the policy they're buying on the Colorado health exchange takes effect.

President Obama repeatedly said that anyone who likes their current health insurance policy would be able to keep it. But insurers have sent hundreds of thousands of cancellation notices to people who buy their own coverage — and some of them face significantly higher costs to get new policies under the Affordable Care Act.

We used the testimonies of the biggest contractors involved with the HealthCare.gov application system to create this guide to how the site's various parts work together, and how the complex system for registering you for health insurance is supposed to work.

For Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, the big question was not why isn't the HealthCare.gov website working. It was why are people being told their insurance is being cancelled when President Obama said they can keep it, no matter what. Administration officials said the new coverage will be better.