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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFrom the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal
Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to spread the risk and keep prices low.
“These are not glitches,” said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. Like many people interviewed for this article, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he did not wish to alienate the federal officials with whom he works. “The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.' ”
Interviews with two dozen contractors, current and former government officials, insurance executives and consumer advocates, as well as an examination of confidential administration documents, point to a series of missteps — financial, technical and managerial — that led to the troubles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4&
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jsr
(7,712 posts)"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."
dkf
(37,305 posts)This must be a plot by the right wing to make up implausible stories and have them published by the NYT.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Since there are so many, citing 3-4 should be no problem.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Your reply was
Oh but I read so many DUers that say it works perfectly!
your link reads thus
Wow, healthcare.gov just worked beautifully
No wait, instant account creation, workflow to completion...
Anyone else having good luck today?
In the English language words like "Wow" and phrases like "Anyone else having good luck today" indicate an unusual outcome, not examples of normal activity. The meaning in the link therefore is "I know that the site is having a lot of problems (therefore is not working perfectly) but I seem to have had an unusually good result.
That would be contrary, not supporting to your assertion.
Either you
a) have a limited facility for reading English
b) sustained hostility to the ACA and President Obama
or
both.
More typical of the responses is the one from Roland99 who posted on this very thread.
He posted how he was having problems and how the problems were resolved.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023791091
I have worked for the insurance industry for the last 14 years and I have yet to meet a single insurance executive who was not a Republican. They rightly see the government as a competitor and oppose it at all points.
I would prefer the feed back from DUers who have been straightforward and avoid the polyanish type of comments that you appear to attempt to mock.
dkf
(37,305 posts)By people who think it's some DDOS attack or simply due to overwhelming demand. They insisted it was fine.
That's why I stopped posting even though I knew these were things people should know. They need to check their status to make sure it all goes correctly. They need to check their premiums to make sure their premium estimates weren't wrong.
I was told not to post the fact that dependent females don't get pre-natal care in 70% of policies when I know this is something females under 26 should consider.
My objective analysis of ACA problems are not welcome and are being swarmed on.
And I have seen a few "success stories", maybe 3, but the search function on google sucks and what happened to the search on this site? It seems to have disappeared.
The admin over promised on what they could deliver and they don't look very competent. That doesn't bode well for my dream of Canadian single payer and that makes me NOT HAPPY.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)many DUers proclaiming that the ACA is working "perfectly".
And the Canadian single payer plan took 20 years to evolve from a modest single payer plan in one small province to a national plan and 20 more years to evolve into the comprehensive plan they have today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_healthcare#The_beginning_of_coverage
It was not until 1946 that the first Canadian province introduced near universal health coverage. Saskatchewan had long suffered a shortage of doctors, leading to the creation of municipal doctor programs in the early twentieth century in which a town would subsidize a doctor to practice there. Soon after, groups of communities joined to open union hospitals under a similar model. There had thus been a long history of government involvement in Saskatchewan health care, and a significant section of it was already controlled and paid for by the government. In 1946, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government in Saskatchewan passed the Saskatchewan Hospitalization Act, which guaranteed free hospital care for much of the population. Douglas had hoped to provide universal health care, but the province did not have the money.
. . .
The programs in Saskatchewan and Alberta proved a success and the federal government of Lester B. Pearson introduced the Medical Care Act in 1966 that extended the HIDS Act cost-sharing to allow each province to establish a universal health care plan -an initiative that was drafted and initiated by the Liberal party and supported by the New Democratic Party (NDP). It also set up the Medicare system. In 1984, the Canada Health Act was passed under a majority Liberal government, which prohibited user fees and extra billing by doctors.
dkf
(37,305 posts)That was my attempt that a collective "you know who you are".
But maybe too much inside baseball.
My bad.
And Canadian single payer works so much better than what we have and we don't need to go through their pains because they experimented for us.
I had this debate with a certain avid defender of the Prez, and asked if she would pick Medicare over Canadian Single Payer and was surprised when she ask what the difference was. Americans are so out of touch with how much this system sucks compared to the rest of the world.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)product ready on day one.
dkf
(37,305 posts)And that would a relatively easy sign up, probably just a tie in to verify social security data and an issuance of a medical card, very similar to Medicare. It would greatly simplify our system and get rid of all the inconsistencies.
Now the back end would be a bear, similar to what we are going through now.
trumad
(41,692 posts)Is this your way of propping up the bullshit propaganda of the Right Wing.
How you've survived this place is a true wonder.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)wonder why that is?
dkf
(37,305 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)as I said...your time here is ticking away.
Why have you only been concerned since October 1st? Much to your chagrin...Obamacares is here to stay.
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)it's working great in blue states but not red states
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)I like her, I think she's a nice, smart lady and she tried her best--but this rollout was her responsibility, and she and the Medicare person didn't seem to grasp that the success of the website (and the whole program) was far more important than any political considerations. The end product should have been smooth like butter, winning skeptics and selling itself. The IT stuff doesn't magically work itself out--it should have been the focus once the policies themselves were hammered out back in 2010. Win one for IT guys and gals everywhere--you are vital!
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)ALL new web rollouts are fraught with glitches...And those are being repaired round the clock. This is why there is a month window.
wercal
(1,370 posts)Without exception, every new software rollout at work is done with test groups first...for obvious reasons.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)and NO that is NOT true...see Grand Theft Auto for obvious reasons...
The glitches are in connecting so many diverse platforms of software.....think of the hundreds of applications this has to work with across the country. It's more like the Chunnel in Europe. Let all sides tunnel until they meet. This is happening. Please have more patience. This as only been 2 weeks of operation.
wercal
(1,370 posts)Rolling it out early in a small state?
And if you don't think GTA was beta tested for thousands of hours before release, I know a guy who sells bridges....real cheap.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)this is hundreds of them coming together. This is NOT one programming language....this is a very complex system it connects to individual state exchanges...individual health insurance platforms...various levels of identity verification...etc etc etc.
and YES this thing was tested for thousands of hours too before release. GTA having that didnt prevent their ONE platform with ONE type of code to be fraught with glitches now did it? This is not ONE application....this is a complex system of multiple systems...
I suggest you stay away from Bridge sellers as you seem to not understand complex systems.
wercal
(1,370 posts)The more complex a system is, the less testing that should be done before rollout.
The Budweiser 'Real men of genius' song is playing in my head.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)Yes you are a "real man of genius"!
and your hope for a Healthcare.gov failure is duly noted.
Enjoy your stay on DU I fear it is a very "short-visit".
wercal
(1,370 posts)Tested more is morphed into a desire for failure?
You'll have to 'splain that thought process to me Lucy.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)(voluntarily, of course) by alphabetical last names...Monday: A-H, Tuesday: H-O, etc. or have it open only 4-5 days a week and try and fix it. When retail/movie/new electronics/airports have heavy usage, rather than having lines snaking around every whichaway like it used to be, they set up those irritating, but efficient things maze-like that look like and feel a cattle coral. But it manages the crowd.
Regardless of who is to blame, it's called situational crisis management...I'm afraid they are just busy pointing their fingers at each other. Bad management, to be sure.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Let people browse, and then set up registration queues as you suggest in the ensuing weeks.
dkf
(37,305 posts)" 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."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=5
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)this thing will be constantly updated and changed for the duration of it's existence....It's fluid.
Response to TwilightGardener (Reply #5)
libdem4life This message was self-deleted by its author.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)because it doesn't allow you to see plan details. But at least it does now allow you to input your state and area and see a list of plans offered.
https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/
dkf
(37,305 posts)"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"
What kind of estimate would this person have gotten? What plan would they have been reviewing?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html?pagewanted=2&_r=5
Roland99
(53,342 posts)status still "In progress"
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Is it "in progress" because of verification problems?
Roland99
(53,342 posts)I lifted it temporarily on Experian's site and called in and was able to verify my identity over the phone.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Questions
a) did you ever get a verification reference number to follow up with Experian on?
b) did you upload any information or was it all on the phone.
Since the verification hurdle seems to be the most common problem people have I would urge you to start a separate OP detailing what you did so others could learn from it.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)He might have given me a ref # but he assured me that while the website may not reflect it right away, I *was* verified in the system.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)
Cleita
(75,480 posts)Medicare first became law, my father was able to walk into a field office that had been set up at the Social Security office, fill out some forms and talk to a human agent who processed the paper work. Once signed up and the proper documents photocopied for his file, he was able to get government provided health care and in the neck of time as his Parkinson's disease and heart problems were getting more expensive than he and my mother could afford any more. Thank you LBG and the Democratic congress who made this possible.
Could it be that the layers of private insurance companies and contractors are not as efficient as the government? Also, it costs much less to administer these programs once the private sector is eliminated. Just saying. A little historic perception and comparison is useful.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Knowing what I know now, I completely understand why the system was designed to fail. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is, or was, a Third Way co-chair. If we had a Democrat as HHS Secretary, this ACA mess would never have happened, and everyone would be happy and insured by now. A Democrat would have hired reputable businesses with proven integrity to build the system.
Instead, the Third Way gave out crony contracts to low integrity corporations who give campaign cash to corporate owned Third Way candidates. But they give the majority of their campaign cash to republicans, who are all corporate owned.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/two-if-only-scenarios-would-have-improved-obamacare-launch/70451/
http://eba.benefitnews.com/health-insurance-exchange/news/ACA-Computer-Hub-Completes-Security-Tests-2736194-1.html
Experian tried steal from me twice, and UnitedHealthCare did steal from me twice. I tried to have Experian prosecuted for identity theft, and UnitedHealthCare is the reason that I am engaged in a vendetta with private health insurance companies to wipe them all off the face of the earth.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)its plainly written. Not everyone is being evaluated by Experian.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Experian to verify people who can indisputably be identified very easily
And I would like to research this apparent discrepancy.
Thanks!
rickford66
(5,523 posts)I saw a list of contractors hired to develop the websites. One of them (which I will not name) was in a partnership with a small engineering firm I worked for. We designed and built the hardware and designed and wrote the software and they "managed" the program. Our company management was warned about doing business with them but went ahead anyway. After a couple years they owned our designs and software. We were hugely in debt due to their bottlenecks. Most of our engineers were laid off and the company went bankrupt. They went on to make money. These private companies probably didn't care if the final product worked properly. Many of them are used to getting paid until the job is done.
