Posted on 10/13/2013 3:34:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
While the government shutdown distracted much of the media from the troubled September 30 launch of the Affordable Care Act's national insurance marketplace, heathcare.gov, the site's numerous and ongoing issues have become impossible to ignore. The New York Times took a comprehensive look at the nearly two-week-old system, and it's not pretty. "These are not glitches," said an insurance executive who has communicated with federal officials who are trying to implement the new healthcare plan. "The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, 'It's awful, just awful.'"
At least 14.6 million people have visited the site so far, but the government has declined to say how many have successfully used it to enroll in insurance programs. Insurance executives told the Times that they have received only "a trickle" of enrollment files. Some forms have been sent to the wrong insurers because of company name mix-ups, while others are unusable because they are missing "crucial information." Meanwhile, a Times researcher who managed to register with healthcare.gov on October 1 was never able to actually log in to the site, despite 4o attempts to do so over the course of eleven days.
Apparently, healthcare.gov's flaws aren't a surprise to many people who worked on it directly. Internal reports show that officials repeatedly worried that the $400 million system would not be ready in time for the scheduled launch date, which the Obama administration reportedly refused to move or scale back because they did not want to give ammunition to Obamacare's eager critics. Concerns included shortages of funds and other resources, slowness in providing contractors with specifications for the project, and the decision to make the Medicare and Medicaid agency responsible for integrating and testing the newly created databases and software.
Officials have said publicly that the site should be fixed in time for the December deadline to sign up for coverage that begins on New Year's Day. A Times source "familiar with the system's development" says it's "now roughly 70 percent of the way toward operating properly." As for that other 30 percent? "I’ve heard as little as two weeks or as much as a couple of months." Obviously, this situation is embarrassing for the White House. It also poses a threat to the success of the Obamacare. The program won't result in lower insurance prices unless large numbers of people participate in the new healthcare exchanges, and that won't happen if they can't even get the website to work.
I read something yesterday that claimed a lot of the work was farmed out to Asian programmers. But I can’t find it again or anything else that talks about it.
You guys have a link?
Thank you.
“I wasn’t aware that Canada nationally or Ontario provincially utilize affirmative action.”
I can’t say I know that as a matter of fact. however, given that Canada is even more Marxist than we are, i’d say its a good guess.
Nuh uh.
This program cannot work.
Ever.
Gee!
For the man who had Google in his shirt pocket, Obama Caligula isn’t doing so well, is he?
That’s an odd generality to make.
Incompetence begets incompetence.
No one, absolutely no once should concede the management of their health care to the Rodeo Clown!
Do not fund ClownCare!
One possible cause of the problems is that hitting "apply" on HealthCare.gov causes 92 separate files, plug-ins and other mammoth swarms of data to stream between the user's computer and the servers powering the government website, said Matthew Hancock, an independent expert in website design. He was able to track the files being requested through a feature in the Firefox browser.
Of the 92 he found, 56 were JavaScript files, including plug-ins that make it easier for code to work on multiple browsers (such as Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer and Google Inc's Chrome) and let users upload files to HealthCare.gov.
It might be odd but you can bet on me being right about it.
I thought it was $625 Million.....?
Maybe they hired some from the Northern Eskimo tribes....but the computers froze......(pun intended)
I’m still puzzled - it’s easy to believe that it’s incompetence - then again, it’s also easy to believe that it’s intentional... but either way...
Software development professionals have known not to do this stuff for at least 40 years. This much incompetence in one project is breathtaking.
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