ND Insurance Site Visitors Get “Site Down” Message

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Some North Dakotans attempting to log-on to an online marketplace created under the federal health care overhaul are being greeted with a site down message.

North Dakota is one of 36 states letting the feds run the health exchanges under President Barack Obama's health insurance overhaul. Residents are directed to the federal healthcare.gov website.

The site on Tuesday morning warned that it had a lot of visitors. It was sometimes sending users to an online application and sometimes asking them to try again later.

Neil Scharpe of Minot is heading a group of so-called navigators, whose job is to find uninsured residents and inform them of their options under the new law.

Scharpe says it's frustrating trying to direct people to a site that isn't working.