I think the administration should have known how difficult it was going to be to have 35 million or 40 million people to suddenly hook up to a place to go on the Internet. - Harry Reid As I have said previously, I dont think many bureaucrats on either side of the aisle understand technology issues very well, and I dont believe any President we have ever had has. I continue to say we need a Dept of Technology at the Cabinet Level, who does understand issues like this. Who should be over-seeing major projects, and understands implications long before such a project even begins. Who knows what kind of planning & oversight is needed to be successful. Who insures proper design & testing is being made. And who has the authority to change implementation dates, if they feel a system is not ready for prime time use. I am hopeful this issue doesnt simply vanish & be forgotten. To some, it is simply a wonderful opportunity to play partisan politics. To people which a tech background, like I have had, the questions arising now are the same questions we had before the system was even coded. This was doable, but needed to be appropriately planned and supervised. To not anticipate volume of the registration system is not not understand the requirements to initially build the system. And to not have tested to the point where such issues were discovered in advance, that is incompetence. This doesnt prove healthcare legislation was wrong (or is right), and it doesnt prove the government was incapable of building a system that met the requirements. There competent contractors (and US contractors, by the way) who have worked on systems of this scale - successfully. We still do not have an accounting as to whether it was the Health and Human Services Chairperson who selected the lead Canadian company to begin with, and if so, why? My guess continues to be lowest bidder, as I have read a great many times the money spent on this was far less than should have been to bring in the best & brightest talent to build it. As I have said quite a few times, I worked for a Corp who spent double that amount - in the 1980s, to overhaul their systems. This is not an unprecedented amount of money. I am betting a great many of the largest corps have likewise spent more than the total amount on this system - at least once, to increase efficiency, lower costs, and be far more competitive in the market. The talent to build a system on this scale does exist, this is not on a scale with the IRS, the NSA, and like. It is big, big enough and complex enough that you need top notch people managing this. We feel short with the company hired to lead this work... I think that is a unanimous conclusion. To those who do not want an investigation to understand exactly what went wrong, and to come up with suggestions to prevent a similar future experience - I say even though partisan politics is certain to come into play, this is far more important, it has to be analyzed & be an example for what not to do in the future. This system could have worked on day 1. It should have worked on day 1. Lets begin with that understanding, and determine - why missteps prevented it? I am betting funds allocated for building it were part of the problem, but I dont feel that is the end of the issue. Testing is one heck of a big issue. Not being aware of immense issues early on is one heck of a big issue. Not a well managed project... As Sen Reid said, not anticipating the amount of volume needed initially to meet the demand of enrollments is inexcusable. $400 million is not nickles & dimes. For that amount of money, a lot better set of questions & answers should have been there a whole lot sooner... Some of that before the very first line of code was written... We can debate the legislation pros & cons. But the technical issues are not something to debate. This wasnt quality work, it was seriously under par. There needs to be an accounting for why a system this important was implemented so defective. I am on board for bringing in Verizon & all the experts to evaluate, and attempt to get this thing running right within a short window. I would already be changing the mandated enrollment time-frames given the clear issues people are having at this time. Just how much time will there be after the promised fixes are supposedly in place? Its not enough. I am hopeful the system, when successfully running will achieve the objectives for building it to begin with. Dramatically more efficient, a lot more standardized across the industry, a lot quicker & cheaper than 100% via phone. Convenience of customers to access information / make changes & decisions from home 24 x 7. Dramatically increase governments ability to analyze & audit what the industry is really doing to justify expenses being passed along to the public... etc ... Again, every major corp out there has huge central computing systems, complex networks that bring them into the 21st century of processing. Why should insurance still be operating like the wild wild west? Costs have dramatically increased every single year for the past 25+ years, and coverages have kept dropping, with more and more loopholes. If you gotta pay a lot for insurance, at least it ought to be there when you have a big need for it... I know of very good changes in the legislation. There are no doubt changes I would not like. It should be a first draft, that gets reviewed & fine tuned over time by a Congress that is responsible, and watching out for the needs of the masses. That is in a world I dont seem to be living in today... but it is how things ought to be done. Lets get rid of politics, and care more about issues, forget which party stands for what. Take the good in the legislation, as well as the computer system, and modify or delete the bad. Forget what party you are in, and look at it from that perspective. The verdict is out on the computer system. I need to see it working. Moving from concept to genuinely working reality. I havent seen that yet... Will see how the miracle in 30 days turns out. I am making no promises to anyone about that aspect. It may be doable. We also may find other components of this system, beyond registration are broken. I am in no position to evaluate the scope of issues, I have no more information than anyone else outside of this project has. But I have no issue with waiting 30 days... The bottom line is, this has to work. Time will tell if this can be functional in a reasonable time-frame, or plan b needs to be taken. Something other than relying on this on-line system... - Mark news.msn/us/for-obama-health-care-woes-may-have-staying-power/
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 01:45:15 +0000
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