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Marketplace: Wait ‘til November?

HealthCare.gov is still inaccessible to millions, and word is that insurers are telling agents to wait until November to start enrolling consumers on the Marketplace, the Tampa Bay Times reports. The site requires people to register before they can view plans and subsidies, a requirement experts say has contributed to the bottleneck. On Thursday, the site posted a way for people to see plans without registering at healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates -- the same information that has been available since the outset at Health News Florida.

As the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports, a few people are having some luck logging on -- and have been pleasantly surprised by what they will have to pay once tax subsidies are applied. But not all Florida regions are created equal; rural counties with less competition have much higher rates. The priciest plans are in the Florida Keys because there is little competition.

Federal health officials won’t say how many people have successfully enrolled in a plan on the Marketplace, the New York Timesreports. The Times details enormous problems in the rollout, and says that Obama administration officials knew long before Oct. 1 that the web site wasn't ready. 

Some beleaguered and impatient consumers are wondering why the administration doesn't just call in Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com to fix the problems.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.