I will make no bones about the fact I don't think Obamacare was a good idea on any level. But I say that just to put my cards on the table. Forget politics. I'm also a software engineer. Take off your politics hat and look at this with your software engineer hat. Tell me, with a straight face, that this shows any sign of being functional any time soon. Tell me that every software engineer alarm bell you have isn't going off. Tell me that this website, which consists of multiple pieces (insurance info in, user info in, user selection mechanisms, user information flowing back out to the insurance companies, and with every last one of those bits having endless, endless business rules associated with them, and this a gross oversimplification of what's there) only has problems with the user parts, coincidentally isolating all the problems into the only part we've really collectively looked at, and once those are ironed out it'll all go perfectly smoothly because this is an isolated occurrence and not indicative of the whole project.
Republicans and Democrats and bureaucrats and judges and media and internet commenters and everybody else can say whatever they like about whatever they like in whatever forum they like with as much or as little truth as they like, but the software doesn't care. It either works or doesn't. It can't be cajoled, can't be bargained with, can't be threatened, can't be ideologically swayed, and it's too stupid to be capable of any kind of cover up regardless of what its motivation may be. It is what it is, no matter which way you voted in the last election or which way you vote in the next.
"Several industry executives told The Washington Post the daily reports on new enrollments since the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act have often included duplicative information, such as people enrolling and canceling several times in a day."
And you left out e.g. connecting to Experian to get the consumer's credit score, which is part of plan pricing (a general trend with deductibles going up). That one, I've noticed, pretty much requires the registration ... but doesn't explain why the site forbids under penalty of perjury playing "what if" to determine how you might best arrange things for you and yours.
"Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans."
On the other hand, if they get something, this tells us one simple method the insurance companies can generally use to resolve issues. Although it sounds like they'd best contact everyone who maybe signs up, and no doubt the system will be telling two or more companies that some customers have signed up....
A lot messier than CGI Federal's Medicare.gov's Part D prescription plan signup system, where in all fairness the info is binary (I've signed up with X plan) and both sides can depend on the site doing the right thing.
Comments
I will make no bones about the fact I don't think Obamacare was a good idea on any level. But I say that just to put my cards on the table. Forget politics. I'm also a software engineer. Take off your politics hat and look at this with your software engineer hat. Tell me, with a straight face, that this shows any sign of being functional any time soon. Tell me that every software engineer alarm bell you have isn't going off. Tell me that this website, which consists of multiple pieces (insurance info in, user info in, user selection mechanisms, user information flowing back out to the insurance companies, and with every last one of those bits having endless, endless business rules associated with them, and this a gross oversimplification of what's there) only has problems with the user parts, coincidentally isolating all the problems into the only part we've really collectively looked at, and once those are ironed out it'll all go perfectly smoothly because this is an isolated occurrence and not indicative of the whole project.
Republicans and Democrats and bureaucrats and judges and media and internet commenters and everybody else can say whatever they like about whatever they like in whatever forum they like with as much or as little truth as they like, but the software doesn't care. It either works or doesn't. It can't be cajoled, can't be bargained with, can't be threatened, can't be ideologically swayed, and it's too stupid to be capable of any kind of cover up regardless of what its motivation may be. It is what it is, no matter which way you voted in the last election or which way you vote in the next.
We're already hearing about backend nightmares. Can't find the Washington Post article where I first read it, but this UPI one citing them has the details I remember (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/12/Obamacare-website-...):
"Several industry executives told The Washington Post the daily reports on new enrollments since the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act have often included duplicative information, such as people enrolling and canceling several times in a day."
And you left out e.g. connecting to Experian to get the consumer's credit score, which is part of plan pricing (a general trend with deductibles going up). That one, I've noticed, pretty much requires the registration ... but doesn't explain why the site forbids under penalty of perjury playing "what if" to determine how you might best arrange things for you and yours.
And referencing a Wall Street Journal article that's behind their paywall, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-woes-widen-as-ins... says:
"Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans."
On the other hand, if they get something, this tells us one simple method the insurance companies can generally use to resolve issues. Although it sounds like they'd best contact everyone who maybe signs up, and no doubt the system will be telling two or more companies that some customers have signed up....
A lot messier than CGI Federal's Medicare.gov's Part D prescription plan signup system, where in all fairness the info is binary (I've signed up with X plan) and both sides can depend on the site doing the right thing.
I don't wear a politics hat. I keep a brain where that would be.