Government Web Satisfaction Drops After HealthCare.gov Launch

Public satisfaction with government websites fell across the board in the last quarter when the troubled launch of HealthCare.gov, the Obama administration’s online health insurance marketplace, put government website performance front and center, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Satisfaction with government websites fell two points in the quarter from a score of 74 to 72 out of 100 on the American Consumer Satisfaction Index , while satisfaction with government services generally fell 3.4 percent to 66.1 on the ACSI scale.

Satisfaction with government Web and other services had grown over the past two years before rebounding this quarter. Just over one third of people polled by ACSI say they interact with the government most often online.

User satisfaction with the Health and Human Services Department, which manages HealthCare.gov, dropped from 69 to 66 on the ACSI scale. The index did not specifically track satisfaction with HealthCare.gov itself.

“Compared with the private sector, the federal government now lags nearly all industries in the index,” ACSI said in a press release. “Only Internet service providers carry a lower customer satisfaction benchmark of 65. Still, the very best federal agency services continue to rival the private sector.”

The government’s best performers include the U.S. Mint and the Education Department’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid office.

Tuesday’s report was based on interviews with 1,448 users, chosen at random and contacted via telephone and email between Oct. 11 and Dec. 8, 2013.

(Image via Ai825/Shutterstock.com)