On December 27th, Obamacare applicants in Iowa told that they must reapply

From Des Moines Register has this:

Nearly 16,000 Iowans who tried to apply for insurance via the trouble-plagued federal health-insurance website are being told to apply separately through the state Department of Human Services. 

The news affects people who entered their information into healthcare.gov and received a notice that they might qualify for Medicaid. The federal computer system was supposed to transfer their applications to a state computer system, but that transfer has been delayed by technical problems. The new coverage is supposed to take effect Wednesday. 

“Currently, the files sent by (federal officials) do not include enough information for the state to process applications,” a Department of Human Services press release said this afternoon. “Federal officials had indicated they would send more complete information by Monday, Dec. 30, but notified DHS this afternoon that there will be additional delay.” . . .

 Any bets about whether these people will have have a chance to get their insurance up by January 1st?  Of course, the Obama administration just assumes that the private insurance companies will make up for their failures.  Yet, during December the Obama administration had a lot of time to try to gin up support for the program.

Administration officials developed the strategy in mid-December at a White House meeting with aides to House and Senate Democrats, who were part of communications “strike teams” created after HealthCare.gov relaunched Dec. 1. And since then, they’ve been working with outside groups to collect experiences with the Affordable Care Act. 

“We just naturally come across these stories every day,” said Justin Nisly, spokesman for Enroll America, which has 14,000 volunteers who have contacted more than 410,000 people. “Many of our volunteers are people who have gotten covered,” and anecdotes are a way to “make this really practical for people to get beyond the politics of it.” 

House Democratic leaders sent a three-page guide to members this week on finding stories and pitching them to local TV stations and newspapers, promoting them on Facebook and Twitter, integrating them into talking points, and highlighting them in floor speeches. 

There was one key precaution: the stories need to be “thoroughly vetted.” . . .