ObamaCare Website Will Be Fixed in a Month: Official

One of the contractors involved with the ObamaCare website mess simply wouldn't go there yesterday when asked to predict when things might be fixed. Today, the White House official in charge of repairs clarified things: The site should be humming "for the vast majority of users" by the end of November, promised Jeffrey Zients, according to USA Today. "This, perhaps not coincidentally, is the point at which most health-care experts believe the site needs to be up and running without causing serious damage to the Affordable Care Act's first-year open enrollment numbers," observes Sarah Kliff at the Washington Post.

Zients, a former OMB official appointed by President Obama this week to oversee improvements, said a high volume of applicants was only part of the problem. He cited "bugs that prevent the software from performing the way it's supposed to work," and added, "There's a punch list of fixes, and we're going to punch them out one by one." He also named contractor QSSI to oversee the project, notes Politico. Bottom line: "People will be able to apply by Dec. 15 to get coverage by Jan. 1," says an official with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (More ObamaCare stories.)