WH: Interest ‘surge’ in HealthCare.gov

The White House on Monday reported a “surge” in interest in HealthCare.gov, with spokesman Jay Carney saying the site had 375,000 visits by noon.

Carney’s comments come after ObamaCare officials on Sunday announced that “dramatic progress” had been made on the website, allowing a vast majority of users to enroll in health plans through HealthCare.gov.

“We believe that the website is and will function effectively for the vast majority of users,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

Speaking with reporters Monday afternoon, the White House spokesman looked to straddle the line between promoting improvements that have been made with the website and declaring that the portal had been fixed.

Carney said that the administration had “passed an important milestone” while sidestepping questions about whether it was a “mission accomplished” moment for the White House.

“We believe we made the important progress we set out to make, but … the work continues,” Carney said, adding that he wouldn’t “employ” the “mission accomplished” phrase associated with the Bush White House during the Iraq War.

Carney also spent much of his time downplaying questions about continued issues reported by consumers and journalists attempting to access the website.

Carney said that the “surge” in interest surpassed even the “vastly improved capacity levels” of the ObamaCare website.

The press secretary said that the White House “anticipated” that it would be a “big day” for traffic, and argued the new queuing system that has put many trying to access the website on a hold page was evidence the improvement were working.

Read more on The Hill.