Who’s less likely to have a broadband Internet connection at home? According to Pew Research, people without broadband Internet connections at home are more likely to be women, members of minorities, have a family income of less than $30,000 per year, rural, or some combination of the above. They also tend to be older than people with broadband Internet connections.
Now imagine trying to use Healthcare.gov with a dial-up Internet connection.
Sounds to me like the profiles of the target Healthcare.gov user and the user without broadband are pretty similar.
It also seems to me that younger Internet users are more likely to access it via their phones than via personal computers. Just a thought.
I am paying nearly $60.00 a month for my 50 mbps internet connection (speed tests show I’m getting closer to 70). Agreed this is something many could not afford. But we also have the rural issue. I have a reasonably affluent friend who lives out in the country. No cable out there and he is too far from the telephone company switching station to get reliable T1 internet. He has a choice – dial up or outrageously expensive satellite. He can afford the satellite while most of his neighbors can’t.
I have a few rural clients. Even businesses may find it difficult to afford broadband Internet in some areas.
I live two places — one in the city and one in the rural ‘sticks.’ Half the month I’m here with reasonable and fast Fios connections. But, the other half is spent in N. CA, which presents a more complex environment for the internet world to function. Gratefully, we’re near enough to the highway to have cable coming up to our home. But, various friends of ours aren’t so lucky. With no cable, too many trees for good satellite, and as Ron said so expensive, an home internet experience is simply not available to all people — many taking advantage of the wifi at the coffee shop in town. Dial-up continues to be an option when our cable goes down — which happens frequently. However, I hadn’t previously considered how difficult access might be for some to even access and complete the enrollment process, using the current erratic, partially functioning healthcare.gov web site.
The best you can get on satellite is 15 mbps and that will set you back $130.oo a month. The cheapest plan is $40.00 a month and it’s not much faster than dial up.