The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has brought in tech experts from large companies such as Google, Red Hat and Oracle to aid in repairing the healthcare registration site. Officials are feeling confident that the site will be performing smoothly by November 30, which would give citizens enough time to enroll and begin receiving coverage by January 1.
HealthCare.gov was opened with the intention of helping Americans in 36 states see if they qualify for tax credits to buy and sign up for private health insurance. The 14 states are not affiliated with HealthCare.gov have set up their own websites for this purpose and have been running smoothly in comparison to HealthCare.gov.
Despite the newest efforts to improve the website, many remain skeptical about whether or not HealthCare.gov can really get its act together. Questions have also risen about the diligence of the trials and testing the website went through before launch.
But, what do you guys think?
Links links links everybody
4 comments:
Based on the support they received, the website should be functional because of the reputable organizations that helped fix the website. If the website was not tested enough, it was most likely due to the strict time frame. I think that the website should be fine because these organizations that helped fixed the website have a large reputation at stake, so these companies will want to do their best to keep their good reputation
Until this post, I hadn't heard much about the Obamacare website update. After a little research (google search: "Obamacare website update news"), the most interesting thing I took away from this event is Obama's confident, almost nonchalant reaction towards the website's technical delays. Vowing to "see this through" (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/sebelius-apologizes-obamacare-website-fiasco-article-1.1502261) to a crowd in Boston, his semi-relaxed attitude to the technical difficulties of the site coupled with Sebelius' apologies appear to be helping buffer the negatory reactions of opponents eager to tear down Obamacare.
Also, I agree with Paige's point--the companies working on this project are probably very cautious about preserving their reputations and are unlikely to be sloppy with the site's system.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/just-6-people-managed-to-sign-up-for-obamacare-on-the-first?bffb
^Buzzfeed backs up their article with CBS's report, which was corroborated with the actual meeting notes of the "twice-a-day 'war room' meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1" (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57610328/obamacare-early-enrollment-numbers-very-small-documents-show/). The memo notes show that only 6 people successfully enrolled in a health plan through the website on the first day that the it was launched.
It did get better day by day, but unfortunately the improvements were not enough. I'm glad they've taken this course of action to seek help from reliable, not to mention familiar, companies that have long been known to produce favorable results. I'm a total noob when it comes to computers, but I think that if Google never crashes (on me, at least) and consistently provides users with what they want quickly and reliably, then they must be doing something right. Right?
While I understand Howard Anderson's point in the Reuters article Sam linked, I feel like it's not so much a "man-overboard drill" as it is a boost of manpower to help facilitate the massive amount of testing they must do to ensure that the website will be functional for any American, anytime, anywhere. And as for his comment about how "[t]hey have made some interesting promises about how this thing is going to get fixed, but they actually really don't know," I can only say what Alexa and Paige have already said, that these companies' reputations are on the line, and so it's for everyone's interest that they keep their word.
On the brightside, here a HuffPost|Good News article from a month ago that shows the positive outcomes of Obamacare from people who did successfully sign up on the website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/i-am-obamacare-_n_4046470.html
I thought it was ironic that the supposedly "younger generation" labeled democrats have had such technical problems in a very large way.
On a more serious note watched SNL skits (very serious right?) over the weekend and I realized how disconnected we are from the people relying on such programs as obamacare. They're jokes constantly made fun of the low number of people applying and the atmosphere around the skits seemed as if it were not only insulting those who made the sight, but also those who are having to apply.
I hope these difficulties will resolve soon, and hope that the people needing the health care program get it in an efficient and quick process.
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