HealthCare.gov allows expanded window shopping

ObamaCare’s federal enrollment website debuted an expanded window shopping feature Monday as officials sought to cope with heavy traffic and ongoing errors within the system.

Visitors to HealthCare.gov can now access a variety of details about potential health plans that were previously not available to users who had not created an account.

{mosads}The site’s creators were criticized in mid-October after launching a limited window shopping tool that included few details about specific plans.

Users can now access information about provider networks and out-of-pocket costs under the tool’s latest version, giving them a fuller sense of the coverage offered by each health policy.

The preview feature was originally created to direct traffic away from troubled areas of HealthCare.gov, such as the process for creating accounts.

Administration officials touted the tool as a way for consumers to access plan information without additional steps.

The enrollment website experienced a wave of traffic Monday that was roughly double what the system sees on a typical Monday.

The agency in charge of HealthCare.gov chose to deploy a come-back-later system as about 35,000 simultaneous users visited the site due to rising error rates and response times.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services previously said the back-up system would launch at volumes above about 50,000 concurrent users.

The site is under intense scrutiny now that the administration’s self-imposed deadline for fixing it has passed.