Obamacare Website Fixes Could Take Two Weeks Or Two Months 382
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like nobody is quite sure how long it will take to fix the health insurance marketplace website. '"One person familiar with the system's development said that the project was now roughly 70 percent of the way toward operating properly, but that predictions varied on when the remaining 30 percent would be done," the Times reported yesterday. "'I've heard as little as two weeks or as much as a couple of months,' that person said. Others warned that the fixes themselves were creating new problems, and said that the full extent of the problems might not be known because so many consumers had been stymied at the first step in the application process."'"
Seems fine to me (Score:4, Informative)
I was able to register fairly early (around the 3rd) - when the site was still undergoing the initial onslaught of gawkers. It seems to be working ok now - no more "please wait, we are too busy" page at initial login, logging in takes a few seconds. Once in - I am able to search and view policies for appropriate states. The only real issue I found so far is that some of the insurance companies make it difficult to find actual policy prospectus. BCBS does a decent job with direct links, a few others make you look it up in a list by name (which may or may not match the name they present on the main site) and one (Cigna) has broken links that lead nowhere (but their rates suck anyway).
All in all seems about as usable as I've ever seen in a government site. A heck of a lot better than the tax payment system feds have or any of the state DMV sites I had to deal with (and we are talking "red" states, who clearly should know better, right?)
Re:What's that old adage? (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps the developers picked the wrong 2 of: fast, cheap, or good.
Developers don't typically get to decide that. Management makes that sort of decision. If folks are interested, a full list of ACA contractors [sunlightfoundation.com] is also available.
Re:you really want to know what obamacare is? (Score:2, Informative)
Libertarians don't believe in legal contracts?
Interesting. Tell me more, please.
Also, tell me what you do with the 20% of your post-tax income you give to charity. Do you give it to only one national group, or do you split it among several local groups?
Re:Still faster / easier to apply than it used to (Score:5, Informative)
"It just goes to show: It doesn't always pay to contract everything out to the private sector..."
This website is not even what I would call "private sector". A couple of days ago I looked at some javascript from the registration page. You can look at it yourself HERE [healthcare.gov], direct from healthcare.gov.
This javascript is hopelessly broken. Even simple string values are completely messed up. I just checked it again, straight from the website, and even the most basic (literally first day javascript student level) mistakes have not been changed!
This is a complete mess. 70% my smooth, shapely, lily-white ass. It ain't even close to working.
Re:you really want to know what obamacare is? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know about the Federal site since I'm in California but the California site is great. You just have to enter your zip code (no registration) and it will show you all the plans in your area along with the costs and all of the details of deductibles, etc.
Easy.
The plans are cheaper than my current insurance so that's good too.
If the state of the website is any indication ... (Score:3, Informative)
I do not feel so great for Obamacare at all.
I mean, the code itself ( as referred to the following link: https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/global/en_US/registration.js [healthcare.gov] ) is hopelessly broken.
The code looks more like a primary school coding project than a government project.
Or does this signify the quality of (or rather, the lack thereof) : care Obama wants give the US citizens ?
If They Only Had Obama's Election Campaign IT (Score:5, Informative)
What people don't realize is the private sector contractors in Gov't IT have little to do with regular private IT contracting. In order to gain these contracts you need to basically game the formula used to award the contracts. It's a bit more complicated than just having the lowest bid. A lot of it has to do with things like the number of Phd and Master degree workers you have to offer. This often leads to staffing composed of people who have unrelated degrees or people who are from diploma mills.
The Obamacare IT is no more or less messed up than any other gov't system of recent times.
Sadly, Obama can't just raid Silicon valley for some top tier talent to make a new system. That's illegal. Instead the contracts go to companies you've likely never heard of that specialize in sucking off the gov't teet. I'm sure 1/2 the budget was wasted making a 5000 page technical specification document complete with overdone pie in the sky UML diagrams no one understands.
That's the way things will continue so long as the contracting process doesn't take into account the previous success of the contractors work force.
Re:Still faster / easier to apply than it used to (Score:3, Informative)
Why didn't your state setup their own exchange like my own, New York? It worked great. The fed site redirected me right to new york's site.
Easy Peasy.
I guess if the state you live in just couldn't get the job done themselves, and NEEDS TO RELY ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO DO IT FOR THEM, well, beggers can't be choosers, can they?
Re:Giving medical records to private contractors . (Score:2, Informative)
Here, lets look at your "facts", which are really just half statements with commentary.
*** The fact is that the ACA (aka Obamacare) sets up exchanges for people to purchase insurance from private companies. The government is not providing the coverage -- the private sector is.
You left out the part about doing it with other people's money, aka Taxdollars.
*** And yet there's a hue and cry about "government-run healthcare." Guess what: it already exists, it's called the VA. Single-payer? That already exists too, it's called Medicare (probably Medicaid too.)
Forgetting to mention those are huge expensive boondoggles with very poor outcomes in the case of the VA.
***The main point is that medical-insurance coverage is now open to tens of millions of people who would not be able to purchase it otherwise.
Again, open, but at the cost of taxdollars, and for people that don't want the health insurance because they don't really need it, like young healthy adults.
Re:Math doesn't add up. (Score:2, Informative)
Except you're not factoring in several things. First, the website is not the only means to sign up. You can do it by mail, phone, or in-person. Second, the coverage of the federal exchange is only for those states who refused to set up any form of exchange. That means states that set up their own exchanges rather than throwing it to the federal government have their own separate provisioning. But you're mixing those numbers together.
I forget the third, something about the Department of Education.
Re:If the state of the website is any indication . (Score:1, Informative)
Don't forget how it incentivizes the private sector, to shift all full time jobs, to part time jobs, to avoid having to pay for health insurance, which is 3 times higher than was promised.
Obamacare sucks.
It's no surprise, since Obama sucks at nearly everything except reading inflammatory rhetoric and lies from a teleprompter.