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Titanic Obamacare hits iceberg of reality
Overwhelmed, but by demand or ineptitude?
WND
Garth Kant
10/8/2013
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – The first reviews are in, and so, far, Obamcare is a lot like “new” Coke. Few product roll-outs in history have had more problems.
Even some of its strongest supporters are the most scathing critics of the way Obamcare has been introduced to the public.
When President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius compared the Obamacare website problems to a glitch in an Apple product roll-out, Washington Post columnist Ezra Kelin responded, “But the Obama administration doesn’t have a basically working product that would be improved by a software update. They have a website that almost nobody has been able to successfully use.
“If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for (Apple CEO) Tim Cook’s head.”
Klein’s column was titled “Obamacare’s website is really bad.”
The administration claims the website running the federal health-care exchange (serving 36 states that do not have individual exchanges) has been overwhelmed by demand and had 9 million visitors in its first four days.
But the administration refuses to say, or cannot say, how many people have actually enrolled in Obamacare.
That may be because the Wall Street Journal reported insiders and insurance-industry experts estimated only a few thousand people in the entire nation had signed up for Obamacare in its first six days.
It may be difficult to tell how great demand for Obamacare actually is, because it is proving next to impossible to complete an application on its website.
Information technology experts told the Journal the website “appeared to be built on a sloppy software foundation.”
Monday night on “The Daily Show,” Sebelius claimed “hundreds of thousands” of Obamacare accounts had been created. On Tuesday, she wrote in USA Today, “demand was so high, it exceeded even optimists’ expectations.”
But the Journal estimated only tens-of-thousands of people have even begun the application process.
USA Today ran an editorial alongside the piece by Sebelius calling the exchange launch an “inexcusable mess” and noted, “Even though the system was shut down for repairs over the weekend, Monday’s early reports continued to suggest an epic screw-up.”
Even Obamacare supporters are mystified that, with four years to design and build a website to handle enrollment, the government claims it cannot keep track of how many people are actually enrolled.
“We will release monthly data when it is available,” a senior administration official told CNN.
Worse yet, Politico reported that Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling admitted: “The truth is, we don’t have that information.”
Sperling reportedly advised everyone to wait until Jan. 1 to consider enrollment numbers, and said the public should “stay tuned.”
Perhaps not so coincidentally, when WND spent hours online and on the phone trying to get a cost estimate for an Obamcare plan, it was told to expect a quote by Jan. 1.
If the Wall Street Journal is correct, and actual applications are much fewer than expected, it is difficult to tell if the low demand is indeed because of processing problems, or if it is due to dissatisfaction with the product.
Anecdotal evidence on the government’s own health-care Facebook page suggests both problems are significant factors.
A few users seemed simply confused, but the overwhelming number of comments were critical and many of those were scathing.
Complaints about the application process had three recurring themes: long waits, glitches and sticker shock. There was also much ridicule of the site’s inability to handle “tremendous demand.”
Dazed and confused
Lance Link: “Why can’t I see rates without giving all my personal info? I just want to compare things. Are the rates so horrible that you can’t just show them?”
Barb Kaster: “Why was this site set up to require an account before being able to see the choices of plans? This is an awkward step before one can view the policy choices.”
Long wait
Walter Whitfield: “I have been trying to register six times a day for three days. I have never been able to do it successfully. Seriously, you guys had three years to prepare for this. Whoever was in charge of setting this up needs to be looking for a new job.”
Becky McElhaney: “I have wasted countless hours trying to create an account on this site. Something is very wrong that they are not prepared for the website to handle this kind of traffic or whatever the problem is.”
.......................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/titanic-o...rg-of-reality/
Overwhelmed, but by demand or ineptitude?
WND
Garth Kant
10/8/2013
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – The first reviews are in, and so, far, Obamcare is a lot like “new” Coke. Few product roll-outs in history have had more problems.
Even some of its strongest supporters are the most scathing critics of the way Obamcare has been introduced to the public.
When President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius compared the Obamacare website problems to a glitch in an Apple product roll-out, Washington Post columnist Ezra Kelin responded, “But the Obama administration doesn’t have a basically working product that would be improved by a software update. They have a website that almost nobody has been able to successfully use.
“If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for (Apple CEO) Tim Cook’s head.”
Klein’s column was titled “Obamacare’s website is really bad.”
The administration claims the website running the federal health-care exchange (serving 36 states that do not have individual exchanges) has been overwhelmed by demand and had 9 million visitors in its first four days.
But the administration refuses to say, or cannot say, how many people have actually enrolled in Obamacare.
That may be because the Wall Street Journal reported insiders and insurance-industry experts estimated only a few thousand people in the entire nation had signed up for Obamacare in its first six days.
It may be difficult to tell how great demand for Obamacare actually is, because it is proving next to impossible to complete an application on its website.
Information technology experts told the Journal the website “appeared to be built on a sloppy software foundation.”
Monday night on “The Daily Show,” Sebelius claimed “hundreds of thousands” of Obamacare accounts had been created. On Tuesday, she wrote in USA Today, “demand was so high, it exceeded even optimists’ expectations.”
But the Journal estimated only tens-of-thousands of people have even begun the application process.
USA Today ran an editorial alongside the piece by Sebelius calling the exchange launch an “inexcusable mess” and noted, “Even though the system was shut down for repairs over the weekend, Monday’s early reports continued to suggest an epic screw-up.”
Even Obamacare supporters are mystified that, with four years to design and build a website to handle enrollment, the government claims it cannot keep track of how many people are actually enrolled.
“We will release monthly data when it is available,” a senior administration official told CNN.
Worse yet, Politico reported that Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling admitted: “The truth is, we don’t have that information.”
Sperling reportedly advised everyone to wait until Jan. 1 to consider enrollment numbers, and said the public should “stay tuned.”
Perhaps not so coincidentally, when WND spent hours online and on the phone trying to get a cost estimate for an Obamcare plan, it was told to expect a quote by Jan. 1.
If the Wall Street Journal is correct, and actual applications are much fewer than expected, it is difficult to tell if the low demand is indeed because of processing problems, or if it is due to dissatisfaction with the product.
Anecdotal evidence on the government’s own health-care Facebook page suggests both problems are significant factors.
A few users seemed simply confused, but the overwhelming number of comments were critical and many of those were scathing.
Complaints about the application process had three recurring themes: long waits, glitches and sticker shock. There was also much ridicule of the site’s inability to handle “tremendous demand.”
Dazed and confused
Lance Link: “Why can’t I see rates without giving all my personal info? I just want to compare things. Are the rates so horrible that you can’t just show them?”
Barb Kaster: “Why was this site set up to require an account before being able to see the choices of plans? This is an awkward step before one can view the policy choices.”
Long wait
Walter Whitfield: “I have been trying to register six times a day for three days. I have never been able to do it successfully. Seriously, you guys had three years to prepare for this. Whoever was in charge of setting this up needs to be looking for a new job.”
Becky McElhaney: “I have wasted countless hours trying to create an account on this site. Something is very wrong that they are not prepared for the website to handle this kind of traffic or whatever the problem is.”
.......................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/titanic-o...rg-of-reality/