Today Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius fell on her sword and took responsibility for what can only be dubbed “ServerGate” – the litany of problems befalling the HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace website and servers, which has led to the President calling for a “tech surge”.
Said Sebelius, “In these early weeks, access to HealthCare.gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans, including many who have waited years, in some cases their entire lives, for the security of health insurance.”
“You deserve better. I apologize. I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems,” said Sebelius to the American people.
Obama’s call for a tech surge – by which he means a surge of outside tech professionals to be thrown at the problem, has led the Department of Health and Human Service to state that “We are committed to doing better… our team is bringing in some of the best and brightest from both inside and outside government to scrub in with the team and help improve healthcare.gov.”
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By some accounts, there are already 55 different companies working on the site, each with their own contractors on the job (one having up to 300 contractors working on it). While the site was tested before it launched publicly, there are claims that changes – some last minute, some not – some alleged to be politcally motivated – further complicated an already complex system.
Sebelius also added that “we did not adequately do end-to-end testing.”
On a side note, we find it interesting that nobody has mentioned that no matter how much you test a website, the true test of whether it can hold up to having 20 million people (the current figures) visiting it is to, well, have 20 million people visit it. (Of those 20 million, 500,000 submitted applications.)
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Robert Stephens has put the matter into words, and very well.
This whole thing was a law written for and by lobbyists. Doctor lobbyists. Hospital Corporation lobbyists. Drug Corporation lobbyists. Medical Corporation lobbyists. Lawyer lobbyists. Insurance Company lobbyists. And so on…..
It was made horrendously complicated, as a result. And the lobbyists were not fools. They made well sure their “masters” would benefit.
Someday … the truth will out.
Is it repairable? Yes. But whether the will is there, is another matter….
Even though the actual website has been a disaster, this seems to be clouding the fact that the ACA will NOT result in what was expected nor result in what the president put forth to the people. I see why the Republican Party disagreed with it although their method of disagreement was unacceptable. I personally know of 2 senior citizens that did receive notices regarding their health insurance that will result in either no coverage or a major increase in premiums. The companies blamed this on having to conform with the ACA. This whole law fell right in the hands of the insurance companies. It will pad their bottom lines and turn the health business into profit only without improving health services. It seems as if the insurance companies are taking advantage of this law as they seem to want to cover and accept premiums from healthy people and not insure OR overcharge those who might be a risk down the line. This is not what health insurance should be meant for. Not everyone who is losing their present coverage will be able to receive subsidies. It would have been better if the subsidies were given to ANYONE that had to pay more for the same coverage of their present plan. After all, the president claimed if you like your insurance plan you can keep it. He guaranteed this. What he didn’t say was you can keep the plan but the insurance companies will also charge what they want with the blessing of the ACA. This was a very underhanded way to fill the pockets of the insurance companies in a business that is all ready out of control with skyrocketing rates.