Things are busy at Idaho’s health insurance exchange today as enrollment opens, but the system hasn’t crashed as several other state exchanges around the country have reported. Instead, there are slowdowns, but everything’s functioning, and the state’s in-person assistants and insurance agents and brokers have been able to access the system. “It really is a higher volume than I think a lot of people may have thought, but it’s a positive response at this point,” said Alberto Gonzalez, operations manager for the Idaho exchange, Yourhealthidaho.org.

Ten workers at a temporary Boise call center have been taking calls non-stop all morning; Gonzalez said the average wait time has been only a minute and a half, with the longest wait at 5 minutes. “I think we’re handling the calls pretty well,” he said. Across the state, 120 in-person assisters have been trained to help people navigate the exchange, including figuring out what kind of help they may be eligible for, and how to compare and choose health insurance plans. Callers or visitors to the website can be referred to in-person assisters, agents or brokers in their area.

Idaho’s exchange website, for now, routes applicants to the federal exchange website for signups, but the state is developing its own. “We could not get the technology in place in just a few months,” Gonzalez said. But he said by a year from now, in October of 2014, “We’ll be on a full state-based exchange technology.”

Exchange officials stressed that whether people sign up today or any time between now and Dec. 15, coverage will start Jan. 1.