Yes, HealthCare.gov *is* shutdown. But don’t expect such an announcement forth coming. Allow me to explain...
Been in the web/marketing business for 14 years. That site (and everything that comes from it) was doomed the moment people began going to the site and saw all the errors, the lack of security, or couldn’t get through. Despite all the spin you may have heard, that alone killed it.
This administration (and their media court jesters) have this firm belief that unless they report it, it’s not news and therefore is not happening. That’s easy when something is happening out of your reach, or thousands of miles away. You can do your best to spin it to your liking.
The web world is a different medium all together. There is no media filter between you and a website. If it doesn’t work, you know it. I’ve heard the stories of people taking hours to get signed up. I doubt that. Ask yourself how long to you give a web site your visiting to work. According to anyone’s web stats, the average is usually measured in seconds, not hours.
They brag about all the sign ups, but won’t reveal (or let let insures reveal) the true sign up numbers. It’s like bragging about how many millions of people watch that show on your network last night - when the station was off the air the whole evening.
When the media really began reporting how bad the site was, my suspicions were that the sign ups had all but stopped at that point. the main story in the news cycle is how bad the site is, and you *really* think thousands are still trying to sign up? Get real.
And it goes beyond the site. As we say in the web world, ‘content is king’. No matter how good or bad your site is, if the content sucks, the site is doomed to failure anyway. In the case of this one, the prices being offered are not even close to being competitive to what’s in the marketplace. and forcing people to go to an overpriced product violates basic business laws. Regardless of how much power you think Washington has, they cannot force people to sign up on for a bad product on a site that doesn’t work, and my sources tell me the biggest problem they have with trying to fix the site, is that no decent programmers want to touch it (call it the John Galt Syndrome), or they want a King’s ransom to simply redo the whole thing.
The biggest issue is the whole rollout itself. The big box stores are getting ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday right now. Beta testing and load testing is in progress. They plan to roll out on TV, print, radio and web - and a fraction of the costs. The government’s rollout consisted of some media hacks trying and failing to access the web site on national TV. It was pretty much doomed from that point.
In short, Ted Cruz et al has - as I predicted - been vindicated. If they don’t delay or scrap it altogether, the lawsuits will soon start after Jan 1 (when someone dies from losing their health insurance or the .gov site loses someone’s records), and some court(or state) *will* put a stop to it.
We will see...
Paper applications and the call center is the only reliable way for folks to sign up right now. And let me repeat...just to sign up. Then they have to wait for the paperwork to be sent back to them showing what plans they are eligible for, possible financial assistance, etc.
No one will benefit much at all unless they qualify for the tax credits giving them a lower monthly premium AND the cost reductions (which help lower the deductibles and co-pays).
Otherwise, you may have a low premium, but those deductibles will be very high.
The media has been boasting of the low premiums. But they need to let people know about those really high deductibles and co-pays. People need to be warned!