First questions to be answered are by you, so you never see the full range of products offered. And if you don't buy anything, a lot of personal information about you, and about your computer, ISP, etc., has been collected.

This is a very high pressure sales technique, and turns a lot of folks off, whether it happens on the internet, at the used car dealership, or even JPMorgan's "suit & tie banksters" harassing of their already existing banking customers.

to sign up for an ACA plan - as I understand it they can also do it by mail or over the phone. I live in a state that has its own exchange and after a few minor glitches were worked out it appears to be working pretty well, so I'm not paying a lot of attention to the issue - I'm sure the federal website will be fixed eventually. But obviously one does want a website that is easy to navigate and doesn't keep hanging up, so it's not just a matter of impatience. The damn thing has to be made to work properly, and right now it doesn't.

As to your other comment: I seldom read long comments on DU, but only because they tend to be rambling and disjointed, or full of blue links, or lacking in punctuation or paragraphs and therefore hard to read. I often read long articles on sites like Salon, if they are interesting and well-written.

I'll just comment on the title. It seems to be correct.

Not when their lives of families are on the line and perhaps financial ruin.

Your post might have been relevant 20 years ago...

who in a previous job spent A LOT of time helping people fill out rather dense government forms, I agree totally. The forms are often too hard for the average person to understand with a cursory reading and are too long for the TV/text age attention span. Also, following directions is not a skill praticed by all people. Or even most people. Often people would make mistakes, or simply not do things, that were not difficult, but that required actually word for word reading of the form.

And that's the people who could read and comprehend. Add to that the not insignificant number of people around who can't read well or don't comprehend what they read, and form-filling-out is not at all a universal skill.

I know people who are single, have no deductions and a savings account, who hire people to do their taxes. Crazy.