Bloglander

Heavy traffic might explain some of the problems that marred opening day for the Washington Healthplanfinder website.

According to a press release from the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, the online insurance marketplace "experienced high demand in the first hours of operation and the toll-free Customer Support Center received twice the projected amount of consumer inquiries while maintaining a positive overall wait time."

Here are the statistics coming out of day one:

• 170,487 page views (Oct. 1)
• 6,385 accounts created (Oct. 2)
• 6,199 customer support center calls (Oct. 1)
• 73-second wait time for consumers calling the support center (Oct. 1)

Exchange officials say consumers who met with community groups trained to guide people through the marketplace were able to enroll in health insurance using paper applications — which you can do too. 

The Healthplanfinder website will be unavailable tonight from 10 pm to 6 am for scheduled maintenance and system improvement.