Low-Tech Problems Plaguing Obamacare Sign Ups Too

Just a total clusterfuck

When advocates for the president's healthcare lawstrategized about how to reach the uninsured, they knew exactly whom to tap: mothers who could spread the word about the law's benefits, sign up their younger children and nudge their twentysomethings to take part.

But beyond the widely publicized problems with the federal website, low-tech challenges also are complicating that part of the drive to sell the program — even in California, where the state website is running more smoothly and officials are fully behind the push.

On a recent evening at Dolores Mission in East L.A., nearly a dozen women who help minister to the poor and sick in their parishes met to discuss the work ahead. With organizing help from a faith-based group known as LA Voice, they had collected hundreds of health surveys from parishioners during Sunday Mass. The results, announced by two of the women, sent a murmur of surprise through the room.