Uh Oh: Vermont's Healthcare Exchange Has A Security Breach

I've already written about the issues plaguing Vermont's health insurance exchange, and the problems keep on coming.

For starters, less than one percent of Vermont's residents have attempted to enroll in any plan at all. Roughly 5,500 Vermonters have attempted to enroll (0.88 percent of the state's population), and of those 5,500 people, about 2,200 have succeeded in enrolling in a plan. (It is unknown how many people have actually paid, however.)

For comparison's sake, the undergraduate population of the University of Vermont is 9,970 students.

Secondly, the website is a piece of crap that might compromise a person's identity.

From the Burlington Free Press:

Officials overseeing the Vermont Health Connect website confirmed Friday there was a security breach on the system last month in which one user got improper access to another user’s Social Security number and other data.

A report from state to federal officials overseeing the health insurance exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act said a consumer reported the incident with the Vermont Health Connect website on Oct. 17.

The consumer, whom officials would not identify, reported that he received in the mail — from an unnamed sender — a copy of his own application for insurance under the state exchange.

“On the back of the envelope was hand-written ‘VERMONT HEALTH CONNECT IS NOT A SECURE WEBSITE!’ This was also (written) on the back of the last page of the printed out application,” said the incident report.

As Vermont is shifting to a single-payer system in the coming years, individual insurance plans will be illegal in the state as of the end of this year and people without employer-provided insurance will be put on the exchange. Thousands of Vermont residents could be without insurance if the exchange website continues to have these errors.