"It's not alive!!!"
As usual, President Obama is angry, frustrated and determined to "get to the bottom of it all and make sure it never happens again".
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/21/obama-addresses-problems-with-health-care-website/
No, he's not talking about the IRS scandal, or the NSA scandal, or Fast and Furious, or Benghazi. He is talking about that half-billion-dollar fiasco called the roll out or sign on website that took three years to prepare and is still not running right.
Surely, heads will roll, right Mr President? But not that of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius.
How about that Canadian company in Montreal (CGI Federal) that got the biggest part of the half-billion-dollar contract to put this monster together?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/17/house-panel-probing-troubled-obamacare-site-launch/
As usual, Obama will look for somebody to blame for this mess-someone below himself and Sibelius. He should look no farther than the man whose name is attached to it all-himself.
As the crooked cop told Frank Lopez in "Scarface" when confronted by a vengeful Tony Montana:
"It's your tree, Frank (Mr President) . You're sitting in it."
He'll blame the contractors who put the computer system together, and rightly so. Its a nightmare, and its holding up a great program.
ReplyDeleteFor now, the best thing to do is to bypass the web site and download a paper application. The links are not easy to find, but I found them today:
http://marketplace.cms.gov/getofficialresources/publications-and-articles/individual-short-form.pdf
http://marketplace.cms.gov/getofficialresources/publications-and-articles/marketplace-application-for-family.pdf
Just to note, with all the blathering that libs/Dems/progressives/socialists (like Siarlys) do relative to conservative/Republican policies allegedly sending jobs "overseas", you would think they could have found an American company to do this little deal with American jobs , and probably a LOT better at that. Usually, you get what you pay for. Although I am most certainly not a computer geek, I would say that if you gave me three years and $500M, I believe I could have done a much better job finding competent people/companies than this bunch did. I realize this is "only" a small part of the budget, but does not principle apply any more??
ReplyDeleteComputer programming is easy to get wrong elwood. I've never advanced beyond simple MBasic, and it was terribly frustrating trying to get the simplest stuff to come out right, especially once you try to anticipate all kinds of human variables and allow for different paths based on these facts that don't fit in a neat little box.
ReplyDeleteIt was a mistake to try to have it all happen in one big program and website. Nobody could have done it well enough.
Some smaller web components, after which the relevant data is submitted for a human being to work with and call the applicant back, would have been much better. That's what its all going to come down to anyway.
Can't quite tell if you think libs, Dems, progressives, and socialists are a single entity, or if you are listing four different parties who happening to be saying similar things right now, and noting that I adhere to one of the four. Actually, socialists actively worked to oppose Obama in 2012. They had about as much impact as they have in any national election since 1932.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteIt is evident from your recent comments that you have been unable to navigate the rollout yourself. Are you enrolled or not?
Siarlys, I did not say I could have done it perfectly, but I must reiterate my belief, accurate or otherwise, that I could have done it better, or at least caused it to be that way. How much more difficult can this be than sending men to the moon or explorers to Mars, or fighting a war, or for that matter keeping track of tax issues involving probably some 150 million taxpayers, a far greater number than in Obamacare and probably at least as complicated and individual, if not more so?? Or even Social Security and Medicare?? Etc., etc., etc. A difference of opinion is what makes for a horse race, and this sounds a lot like gross incompetence and being totally unprepared to me.
ReplyDeleteI realize that I am neither as politically astute or (nor??) active as you are. I mention the four "parties" that come immediately to mind since they are all, at least by my definition, left of center to some greater or lesser degree and there are certainly subdivisions within them and other groups as well. Besides which, if I should err slightly in ascribing something to one of them or their overall stated policies, you will pedantically jump on that and nitpick it instead the addressing the meat of the subject, thereby boring some/most of us to tears if not death. Lumping them together as the "left" usually seems to allay at least some of that and it is easier for me.
Socialists may have actively worked against Obama in 2012, but they did so for entirely different reasons than most of us who are conservative/right-leaning (see, I did it again and you know well what I mean) did. If you agree with them on this issue, see above relative to opinions, and also recall what I have previously told you about them regarding armpits and bodily orifices. I most certainly would not bedfellow with socialists even for that common goal and can only hope their impact remains no more, and preferably less, than it has been for the last 80 years or so.
Elwood,
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that the contract for this website was given to a Canadian firm, CGI of Montreal (actually, it's US subsidiary) even though CGI had been fired from a similar venture by the Canadian govt. for screwing it up.
And it was a no-bid contract.
Meanwhile, poor Siarlys has been trying for days or weeks to navigate the website and has now decided to send for a form in the mail.
My application is pending, Gary. Its in the mail. The web site is, obviously, not up to the task of instant enrollment. But hey, until this year, I didn't even file my taxes on line. I did it the old fashioned way, with pencil and ink.
ReplyDeleteI did not, however, send for a form in the mail. As you would know if you were reading your own blog, I found where to download the paper application, printed out a copy, filled it out, and mailed it in.
To say that four parties are all "left of center to some greater or lesser degree" is not unlike saying that Gary Fouse, Arlen Spector, Patrick Buchanan, and Adolf Hitler, are all "right of center to some greater of lesser degree." Rather unenlightening.
With elwood's "belief, accurate or otherwise" and $10 he can buy a cup of coffee at Starbuck's. It my opinion that even attempting to run all of this through a big bad web site was indefensible hubris. Computer programs aren't that good. I don't care how much money or how many experts you throw at creating or fixing it. Making eligibility determinations requires a lot more judgement than filling out a tax form.
I happened to have made my living in the field of electronic commerce before the internet became ubiquitous.
ReplyDeleteThe basic problem, aside from the technical one, is that the website IS the product! That is their singular real contribution. There were insurance companies before and after Obamacare. The website seeks to match people to insurance carriers that now have additional rules about who and what they must cover (adding to the cost of the coverage). If they fail at producing a working website after 3 years and $400 odd million dollars cost, there are poor prospects for the infinitely more difficult technical aspects of original approvals, referrals, billing, lab approvals and fees, integrated hospital systems,with completely different formats, not to mention patient privacy concerns, approval levels for treatment, and vulnerability to hacking of all the private information that is required BEFORE you can even see the array of coverage options.
Usually, a CEO really concerned with a project or program knows something about it. He follows the progress with regular reports and questions it. He doesn't just farm it out to the lowest bidder.
It is not the job for a Community Organizer who has the growth of the Democratic Party and his primarily goal at heart. I doubt that he even chaired a meeting before he ran for president. At the heart, Obama is an ideological amateur and the country is suffering the consequences for being so uninformed to have elected him to office.
Miggie has an exceptional point. Why the Organizer and Chief chose a Canadian programer for the job of setting up the healthcare site is beyond me. We need the work, have the best expertise on the planet and the product form these Americans are exceptional. Now we will be in the same boat the Canadians sail, by having to wait years for some procedures, or worse by having a death panel decide that your worhtless.
ReplyDeleteSquid
Miggie, you are making an excellent case for moving to a single-payer system. Most of the problems with the ACA come from trying to conform to a variety of inconsistent pre-existing business models, instead of shifting to something simple, streamlined, that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI for one would prefer a single-payer, multiple provider system. The funding system should be simple, transparent, streamlined, and universally accessible. The providers should be free to compete with a variety of models and services, all paid in the same way, but free to vary the way services are offered and delivered.
And, what neither liberals nor conservatives can wrap their minds around, there should be a distinction between health insurance, and pre-paid medical care, a choice between higher premiums with comprehensive coverage, and lower premiums with catastrophic, hospital, and surgical coverage.
(I post this here, because Gary assures us that HHS, NSA, Dept of Justice, and a spook on the White House staff all read his blog religiously, so it seems the best way to get my ideas before those who make policy.)