Health policy observers say that by blowing the opening of health care exchanges off the front page and making it more difficult to correct glitches in the online registration system — the means by which most young people will interact with Obamacare — a shutdown has the potential to significantly impact the health care law, at least in the near term.
The most dramatic impact it could have on the law is making it harder for the government to address bugs in the online health insurance exchanges. With fewer workers available to fix problems as they arise Tuesday, when they go live, word of mouth could spread fast among young adults that the process of enrolling online is cumbersome and inconvenient, said Michael Ramlet, CEO of the health care policy tipsheet Morning Consult, and a former expert at the right-leaning think tank American Action Forum.
“This is especially worrisome when it comes to the coveted young adults, who have the highest expectations for purchasing products online,” Ramlet said.
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