Most uninsured Americans who have visited a state or federal healthcare website have been unhappy with their experience, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Sixty-three percent said their experience was negative, including 30 percent who called it "very negative." A third said their experience was positive, with 5 percent rating it as "very positive," the poll found.

The poll comes amid controversy over President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, also known as Obamacare, as the law's centerpiece website has performed poorly since its Oct. 1 launch.

The website Healthcare.gov, through which visitors are supposed to be able to purchase affordable health insurance, has seen myriad glitches and technical errors preventing people from enrolling. Some users also reported the insurance plans on the site are unaffordable.

On top of the website fiasco, 2 million Americans have been dropped by their health insurance companies -- a number that some predict will reach 5 million -- as their plans did not adhere to Obamacare's strict new guidelines.

That has put Obama in hot water, as recent years have seen his repeated vows that anyone who likes their health insurance plan can keep it under the new law.

Gallup also found that about eight in 10 uninsured Americans have not visited a health insurance exchange website at all. For Obamacare to work, the program depends on enough young, healthy enrollees to offset the cost for older, sicker individuals, experts said.

The White House continues to defend the site, and Obama promised it would be operational by the end of the month.

In a Congressional hearing last week, White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park said there is "much work still to do, but (we) are making progress at a growing rate." Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)