AP Photo Obamacare Last fall’s HealthCare.gov ghosts could haunt 2015 sign-up The second year of Obamacare’s open enrollment begins Saturday. Will the site work this time? 
 
 The second year of Obamacare’s open enrollment begins Saturday, and unresolved problems from the first season are complicating the already daunting task of enrolling millions of uninsured and re-enrolling millions more. 
 
 The lingering challenges involve both flawed technology and public perception of the Affordable Care Act as the Supreme Court prepares to review yet another key provision. The first season actually beat enrollment expectations, despite its disastrous start. More than 7 million people have exchange plans, and about 8.7 million were added to Medicaid. Premium increases for 2015 have generally been modest, though not all states have announced them yet. But the distrust and opposition, as the midterm elections vividly illustrated, still runs deep. 
 
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 While consumers who click onto HealthCare.gov will see a cleaner, simpler application page, insurers still have headaches. They interact with the website’s so-called back end, which is supposed to tell carriers who signed up and to pay out Obamacare’s subsidies. 
 
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 That part still doesn’t work as it should. Insurance industry sources say the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had sorted through about 80 percent to 85 percent of existing accounts to make sure its records match those of insurers. The agency is not likely to be done by Saturday; the latest best-case scenario is for the job to be finished by Dec. 15. 
 
 The date is key because anyone currently covered who doesn’t either re-enroll or pro-actively opt out will automatically be re-enrolled in the same plan or the closest match for 2015. But with all the gaps in the system, consumers could find themselves in the wrong plan — or even enrolled in more than one plan. Nor will the health plans always know promptly if a customer dropped one plan and chose another (even though the “834s” — those initial enrollment files that nobody had ever heard of until they gummed things up last year — are pretty reliable now). 
 
 CMS has been using cumbersome workarounds to clear up the records and calculate subsidy payments. But it’s been messy, even without a wave of potentially millions of new enrollees added to the mix. The solution — a computer-facilitated automatic monthly reconciliation and payment process — fell by the wayside with last year’s rollout disaster. Insurers don’t expect it to come online until sometime next year. 
 
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 The administration, for its part, is much better prepared this fall to handle glitches. The tech SWAT team that made the frantic push to salvage the sign-up site last year is in the wings. Some are back at their regular Silicon Valley jobs, ready to swoop back in if they get the call from Washington. Others now work for the government, either toiling away at the new and improved HealthCare.gov or as part of a new White House-based cavalry of coders and software engineers ready to ride to a tech rescue anywhere the government needs them. 
 
 The website that serves as the primary enrollment portal for the Affordable Care Act was repaired last year, and by the end of the debut sign-up season it was working fairly well for consumers, although the pieces on which the insurance industry relies were incomplete. 
 
 Health officials working on the site on Sunday previewed for reporters a new “window shopping” feature that people should be able to use this week, to start checking out health plan options before enrollment opens. Officials said they’ve met their deadlines for testing, and should be ready to go next weekend. 
 
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 Another total meltdown is unlikely. But even less serious problems will catapult into the headlines given the first year’s calamity, when a faulty website nearly derailed President Barack Obama’s top domestic achievement. Any missteps this season will be magnified by the GOP. Having a slew of problems from last year only makes the job of the Obama administration, new Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and supporters in the states more difficult. 
 
 HHS officials aren’t predicting perfection this year. But they and the many coders who helped in last year’s rescue do say they’ve done more testing this time around, and expect the site to work well. And if trouble comes, they’re better prepared. 
 
 “I’m cautiously optimistic about the site, but I definitely will be watching the news just like everybody else,” said Jason Huggins, a former Google employee who helped improve HealthCare.gov’s automated testing last fall. He’s been helping implement the retooled site, too — and he says he’d return to the trenches if summoned. 
 
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 “For a lot of us, when you hear the president needs your help, how do you say no?” he asked. “If you have a skill set and the country needs you, how do you say no? I expect a lot of people that I worked with would say yes again.” 
 
 Others who came to join the tech surge — an exhausting, intensive six-week 24/7 operation that went right through Thanksgiving — never left. They’ve moved from the rescue-squad headquarters at the DoubleTree hotel in suburban Columbia, Md., and are installed in downtown Washington offices. 
 
 Andy Slavitt, who at Optum led the contractors helping to fix the ailing website, is now a top-tier CMS official. A new “CEO” for HealthCare.gov has been brought on, an expert who helped get both Massachusetts and Connecticut’s exchanges up and running. 
 
 Ryan Panchadsaram, a Presidential Innovation Fellow called in last year, now works in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as a deputy CTO. Paul Smith and Greg Gershman, both part of the original SWAT team, founded a private company, Ad Hoc LLC, which has been called in to help with digital projects like HealthCare.gov. ||||| WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Sunday that consumers could shop for health insurance and compare their options on HealthCare.gov starting Monday, even before the open enrollment period formally begins five days later. 
 
 Andrew M. Slavitt, the No. 2 official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new website would have more information and would be easier to use than the one that frustrated millions of consumers last fall. 
 
 Consumers would be able to sort plans not only by the amount of the premium, but also by the size of the deductible, Mr. Slavitt said. In addition, he said, consumers would be able to see all health plans that have special programs to manage certain conditions like asthma, heart disease, depression, diabetes, lower back pain, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. 
 
 The announcement came as the Obama administration ramped up preparations for the second open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act. People would be able to see prices and other the details of health plans on Monday, but would not be able to buy insurance until the open enrollment period starts on Saturday. To see plans Monday after the new feature is live: https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/ 
 
 By contrast, consumers last year could not see details of the available health plans until the first open enrollment period began on Oct. 1. Even then, consumers could not engage in anonymous “window shopping.” They had to create accounts, providing personal information in response to numerous questions, a restriction lifted by early December. 
 
 About 7.3 million people have insurance coverage purchased through the federal and state insurance exchanges, or marketplaces. If people did nothing, they would, in most cases, be automatically re-enrolled in the same or similar health plans. 
 
 However, Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal marketplace, said Sunday: “We are strongly encouraging our customers to return to HealthCare.gov, update their income and eligibility information, shop and compare and see if there are better values out there for them. A majority of our customers will be able to save money by shopping and comparing.” 
 
 In June, the Obama administration emphasized the benefits of passive re-enrollment. “At least 95 percent of consumers in the marketplace will not have to do anything to renew plans and their financial assistance,” the administration had said. 
 
 Mr. Counihan predicted on Sunday that 15 percent to 25 percent of applications for insurance would be submitted by people using smartphones or tablet computers, and the website was able to handle such applications, he said. 
 
 In addition, the government said it had 14,000 customer service representatives, an increase of 1,000, to answer questions and help people who call the health insurance marketplace for assistance, at 1-800-318-2596. 
 
 Administration officials and insurance counselors said the second open enrollment period could be more difficult than the first for several reasons. It will, for example, be only half as long: three months, rather than six. 
 
 Officials said they believed that people who remained uninsured would be more difficult to reach, since they passed up an opportunity to buy insurance in the first enrollment period. 
 
 The most common reason people gave for not signing up was that they thought they could not afford health insurance. Low- and moderate-income people can often get federal subsidies to help defray the cost, but officials said they could not guarantee that the money would be available if the Supreme Court blocked payment of subsidies. 
 
 The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act that questions the government’s authority to pay subsidies in three dozen states that use the federal exchange. If the plaintiffs are right, people in those states could become ineligible for assistance, destabilizing and perhaps dooming the law. 
 
 For now, at least, “nothing has changed,” Josh Earnest, President Obama’s press secretary, said on Friday. “Tax credits and affordable coverage remain available.” 
 
 Asked Sunday if the lawsuit might have a negative effect on public willingness to sign up, Mr. Slavitt said, “We believe consumers should be very confident in the subsidies being offered.” 
 
 Democrats said it was troubling that the court would even consider the legal question. They said Congress intended for the subsidies to be available in every state, regardless of whether its exchange was established by the federal government or by the state itself. 
 
 More than four million people have been receiving the subsidies. For people who obtained insurance through the exchanges this year, subsidies reduced the average premium by more than 75 percent — to $82 a month, from $346. 
 
 By entering information about their income and family size at HealthCare.gov, consumers can get an estimate of how much financial assistance they would receive for a particular health plan. In addition, smokers can see the amount of any surcharge imposed for tobacco use. 
 
 The administration has tried to lower expectations for the second sign-up period, refusing to set a numerical goal for enrollment and acknowledging, as Mr. Slavitt said, that “things will not be perfect.” 
 
 Consumers have frequently complained that HealthCare.gov had inaccurate information about doctors in the networks of their health insurance plans. 
 
 Mr. Counihan said the federal website included links to “provider directories” on insurance company websites. But he said, “These directories are almost out of date as soon as they are printed,” so consumers should call doctors’ offices to see if they are taking new patients from a particular health plan. ||||| HealthCare.gov is a federal government website managed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service. It was redesigned and simplified for 2015. (Photo: AP) 
 
 The federal health insurance exchange went live Sunday night for window shopping — a couple days later than some expected — as government officials worked to refine both their technology and their message to one encouraging people to re-enroll to save money when they start buying plans Nov. 15. 
 
 The Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent a repeat of last year's disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, an experience that many newly insured consumers may want to avoid going through again. HHS principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt said the window shopping "functionality has been ready for a while ... (but) obviously we've been continuing to test it." 
 
 The launch comes two days after the Supreme Court announced it would reconsider a lower court ruling that upheld the Affordable Care Act's system of subsidizing the insurance coverage it requires. Slavitt said Sunday that the administration isn't worried. 
 
 "We believe consumers are very confident in the subsidies being offered," he said on a call with reporters. "We encourage everybody to see what's available on the website." 
 
 Insurers and agents were expecting the site to open so consumers could browse plans Friday, but Slavitt said the department wanted people to be able to access the site Monday morning "when they're starting to think about the marketplace." 
 
 And although "things will not be perfect," shopping around will be "simpler faster and more intuitive" this year, said Kevin Counihan, CEO of HealthCare.gov. 
 
 After announcing in June how easy it would be for consumers to auto-enroll in their existing plans, HHS has changed its message to emphasize the importance of re-enrollment to get the best deal and to update subsidies. 
 
 Despite any potential glitches remaining, experts in and outside the government say both uninsured and newly insured people need to compare their current plans with new offerings, as many will be able to find better rates and plan features. 
 
 "There are a lot of changes that are price declines," said Katherine Hempstead, director of insurance coverage at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "But there are going to be a lot of incentives to shop around and people need to look at the whole plan design." 
 
 For some, a small premium change may be less important than the out-of-pocket costs a plan requires for specialist visits, Hempstead said. So it's important to consider what kind of health care services you and your family are likely to need before choosing a plan, she said. 
 
 HealthCare.gov runs the exchanges for 37 states. Idaho and California, which run their own sites, have already opened them for window shopping and several have made their rates available, if not individual plan details. 
 
 A new Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson analysis of plans in 17 states plus the District of Columbia found six states will have average premium reductions across insurers' lowest cost silver plans, 10 will have premium increases of 5% or less and two will have increases greater than 5%. 
 
 Exchange plans are grouped by metal categories ranging from platinum, which tend to have the highest premiums and lowest cost-sharing, to bronze, which have the lowest premiums and highest out-of-pocket costs. This year, consumers will also be able to search by insurance company, health conditions and types of plans, such as PPOs. 
 
 A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis also found rate changes in 16 states it studied ranged from increases of as much as 8.7% to declines of as much as 15.6%. Kaiser looks at the second-lowest cost silver plan in each state because it's the benchmark that helps determine how much federal assistance eligible individuals can get in subsidies. Overall, the analysis found individuals will pay slightly less to enroll in these plans in 2015 than they did in 2014, before tax credits are applied. 
 
 The majority of people would save money on premiums if they came back and shopped for a plan in the same metal level, Slavitt said. 
 
 Despite all the evidence supporting re-enrollment, a study from consulting firm Strategy& found many people will simply keep their current plans. Almost three quarters were highly likely to stick with the same insurer in 2015 and 57% of those who bought on a public exchange say they're more than likely to stay with the same plan, the study showed. 
 
 When it comes to shopping around, "there's a certain threshold which triggers that behavior," said Ashish Kaura, a partner in Strategy&'s health practice. "Unless existing rates go up more than 7%-8%, people won't look and try to find a better deal." 
 
 Those who receive subsidies toward their plans have potentially even bigger reasons to re-enroll, said Mike Stahl, a senior vice president at the health insurance website HealthMarkets. 
 
 About 80% of people checked a box on their insurance application last year saying the federal government can access their tax information. If those people don't re-enroll and their income changes, they could be sacrificing additional assistance or have to pay back money they shouldn't have gotten at tax time next year, he said. 
 
 The benchmark plans that subsidies are tied to go up every year as the federal poverty limits are increased. So Stahl said people who face a premium increase and don't re-enroll might be forced to absorb the increase without additional federal help — until they get their tax refund the following year. If the 20% who didn't allow access to their tax information don't re-enroll, they'll automatically get the same plan as last year — but no subsidy at all, said Stahl. 
 
 Tell us about your health care experience at healthinsurance@usatoday.com 
 
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– HealthCare.gov is back in action. As of yesterday, visitors can "window-shop" for plans, seeing what's available before open enrollment begins on Saturday, USA Today reports. Are we in for the technological mess that plagued the site last year? "Things will not be perfect," acknowledges the site's CEO, but the search will be "simpler, faster, and more intuitive." For insurers, though, dealing with the site remains problematic, and that could lead to issues with automatic re-enrollment, Politico reports: Some consumers could end up with the wrong plan or multiple plans. Fortunately, tech experts who helped fix the site last year are at the ready should anything go wrong, Politico notes. Automatic re-enrollment will occur for most people who enrolled last year but take no action this year, the New York Times reports. Whether you're covered or not, it's worth a look at the site to check your options, experts say. "There are a lot of changes that are price declines," says a health care advocate; studies appear to bear out her claim. The new open enrollment period will last three months, compared with six months last time, the Times adds. Enrollment begins as the subsidies in many plans face a Supreme Court challenge.