“It’s Awful, Just Awful”
That’s how an insurance industry executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, describes the prospect for a successful health insurance exchange, as reported in The New York Times:
Deadline after deadline was missed. The biggest contractor, CGI Federal, was awarded its $94 million contract in December 2011. But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process. As late as the last week of September, officials were still changing features of the Web site, HealthCare.gov, and debating whether consumers should be required to register and create password-protected accounts before they could shop for health plans…
By ea
rly this year, people inside and outside the federal bureaucracy were raising red flags. “We foresee a train wreck,” an insurance executive working on information technology said in a February interview. “We don’t have the I.T. specifications. The level of angst in health plans is growing by leaps and bounds. The political people in the administration do not understand how far behind they are.”
…just a trickle of the 14.6 million people who have visited the federal exchange so far have managed to enroll in insurance plans, according to executives of major insurance companies who receive enrollment files from the government. And some of those enrollments are marred by mistakes. Insurance executives said the government had sent some enrollment files to the wrong insurer, confusing companies that have similar names but are in different states. Other files were unusable because crucial information was missing, they said.
“As late as the last week of September, officials were still changing features of the Web site.”
Wow.
This issue here lies within one word, “officials”.
Should have we honestly expected anything different? These men and women are politicians (Aka, actors). Why should they be expected to roll out with a vastly complex health care platform?
The better question here is why did they want to?
They forgot that there were other options to the United State’s health care issues…
Health Savings accounts people- Know your options!
What’s really sad is that a Silicone Valley startup would have accomplished the same feat for a few million, it would have been done quickly; it would have been novel and solved a specific need.
As an electrical engineering graduate student (software engineer undergrad), I know for a fact that a few friends and I could write this system within a couple of weekends.
But, throw a bunch of politicians in the mix who can’t agree on what should/shouldn’t be on the site… my time is better spent elsewhere.
Who is more at fault for the technical glitches; the developers or the politicians?
Hard to say, but if I was the developer, I would’ve wanted a detailed proposal of what was wanted in the website. If any changes were requested, a hefty fee would be charged. Thus, resulting in a well thought out original plan.
The fault is definitely on the developer:
For $94M we could just about send a satellite into orbit, but they can’t construct a functional website?
Interesting
They should have hired Amazon to do it. You want a marketplace where people can easily make a purchase, compare options, read reviews, etc? Amazon.com.
I wonder whose cousin runs CGI Federal.
I’m reminded of EFTPS, the IRS website I have to use to pay my employee fica taxes. It works, though it lacks features and looks like a 14 year old built it in 1998, but it does work. So, go Uncle Sam!?
The EFTPS system is awful. I consider myself an intelligent being, but the format of this website is horrendous.
Dear Uncle Sam,
If excessive spending should be spent on anything, spend it on the layout of the website that people use to give you money. ‘Ease of use’ is the last thought that comes to me when using EFTPS.
Maybe some of your cyber-protection agents need to form a team to write some decent code in their off time.
-Unimpressed Taxpayer