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Governor Discusses Problems With Md. Health Insurance Site

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- State leaders release new numbers on the performance of the Maryland's Online Health insurance Exchange since the glitch-riddled roll out of the Affordable Care Act.

Derek Valcourt was there as the governor discussed troubles with the state's exchanges Wednesday.

He's reporting an uptick in the number of people successfully using the system, even as technicians continue to work on those notorious glitches.

The state's insurance exchange---called Maryland Health Connection---went online October 1. Liek the federal system, technical problems bogged the system and soured many.

"We need to do more to help people because this website is not working," said .

"This launch did not go as we had planned," said Governor Martin O'Malley.

At a press conference Wednesday, Governor O'Malley said improvements and fixes to the site are being made daily and makes no apologies for the glitch-filled roll out.

"The option we had was, look...knowing this was a risky launch, do we go ahead and go now or do we hold up and wait? And I made the decision that we go now and if he had not gone on October 1, we would not have made the progress that we've made since then to figure out where those glitches are," said O'Malley.

As a result, so far, 3,024 people have successfully used the state's exchange to enroll in qualified health plans. More than 11,000 people have been found eligible for Medicaid through the program but that's just a fraction of the 310,000 people the state would like to see enroll through the site.

For coverage to be effective by January 1, most Marylanders would need to be finished with their enrollment by December 23.

State officials expect more than 95,000 Marylanders are on track to receive health coverage by January 1 under the Affordable Care Act.

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