"Abend"... there's an old word from my mainframe programming days!
The *one* time I was able to get through it asked me security questions and asked me three that were relevant (and I knew the answers to) and bizarre fourth one, claiming that I had taken out a veterinary care insurance plan in the last two years, and asked for the name of the pet. Uh, no. I never bought one of those. So I entered "none of the above" and I failed my own identity test.
And the thing is, the church council is holding a special meeting on October 8 to discuss what health insurance, if any, it will offer to us. (The churchwide insurance plan requires them to decide by October 14.) We decided to wait until after the exchanges were open so we could see all the plans there, figure out cost and coverage there, and see if we'd be better off if they elected not to offer us insurance (and instead give us some grossed-up cash to pay the approximate subsidized premium and the loss of some subsidy and tax breaks from the extra cash).
But if we can't get in to look at the possibilities, we're pretty much stuck and we have to commit to an uninformed decision one way or another (which could cost us a lot more than is necessary in direct premium costs or reduced salary). So yes, I'm a little irritated when some people say "you have until December 15, there's no rush!" No, for us, there pretty much *is*.
I haven't been able to get to the point where I can see rates on Healthcare.gov but I saw some good info on the Tampa Bay Times website. You may be able to see rates for your area somewhere other than the Exchange. I'm thinking about calling my broker to ask him what he knows about the availability of pricing data. I might even try the Humana website.