No one is closer to the Massachusetts Health Connector website than Maydad Cohen, the man Governor Deval Patrick chose last spring to oversee the rebuild of the website that had a disastrous roll out last year.
That's when most people were unable to enroll in a health plan - even as the state's prior system had served as a model for the country.
Cohen says this new system is ready to go. "We feel pretty strongly that the website will work this time, that it will perform the way we expect it to, that it can handle the type of volume we expect this weekend and beyond," he said.
Cohen is no longer worried about the technological functioning of the website. His main concern is reaching the 400,000 people who may not know they need to enroll in a health care plan in the next three months.
The agency launched an ad campaign and arranged for thousands of robocalls, mailings and 200,000 door knocks.
Governor Deval Patrick described it this way, "It is a simpler system, it's more off the shelf it will get regular refinements just we get updates on our iPhones or smart phones, maybe in its design so that we can improve it as we go along remotely."
The failed rollout last year was a source of great criticism for Governor Deval Patrick - including from Governor-elect Charlie Baker, who felt the state should have sought a waiver from Obamacare.
Baker says he's had some good transition meetings regarding the Health Connector, but says talks need to continue about some of the issues associated with the budget and the math.
Baker said, "My big hope here, to tell the truth, is that, I hope it works and I hope that the hundreds of thousands of people who've been sort of stuck in this limbo period for the past year or so can actually access the coverage they want to access and buy it and pay for it and move on."
You can access the Connector website starting Saturday morning at 8am at Mahealthconnector.org or by calling 877-623-6765
