Senate & House Still Trying to Stop Partial Shutdown | News Reports Summary: Obamacare Website is Crap!
Today in Washington, D.C. - Day 15 of Government "partial" shutdown.
The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1569, Democrats’ debt ceiling bill. Yesterday, the Senate voted 90-0 to confirm Madeline Haikala to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama.
The House convened at 10 AM. The House is focused on a Continuing Resolution and the Debt Ceiling.
Yesterday the House passed H.J. Res. 80 (233-160) — "Making continuing appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the Indian Health Service for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Getting America back on the path to fiscal responsibility should be a top priority for lawmakers as Congress debates increasing the debt ceiling and a bill to keep the federal government running. Public notice has released a briefing book which introduces readers to the current federal spending environment, review the history of the debt limit, and look at what will happen now that we have reached our statutory spending limit.
While open lines of communication in Washington are a good step forward, Americans must be vigilant in making sure that lawmakers are not so afraid of being blamed for gridlock that they forget about their obligations to the American people. Two years ago, an historic bipartisan consensus was forged that resulted in the first deficit under $1 trillion. The Budget Control Act of 2100 is the law of the land, and the House, Senate, and President Obama must abide by it. Any resolution on the shutdown and debt ceiling debate must keep intact those bipartisan limits and must address our nation's $16.7 trillion of debt. If the status quo of running up spending and never making cuts is allowed to prevail, an even worse fiscal crisis is not that far off.
Two weeks in to the launch of the Obamacare exchange website and every day there are new stories about problems, failures, and poor design and planning on the part of the Obama administration.
Over the weekend, The New York Times published an important report about the system. The Times wrote, “In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for the Obama administration’s new online insurance marketplace, told industry executives that he was deeply worried about the Web site’s debut. ‘Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience,’ he told them. Two weeks after the rollout, few would say his hopes were realized. For the past 12 days, a system costing more than $400 million and billed as a one-stop click-and-go hub for citizens seeking health insurance has thwarted the efforts of millions to simply log in. The growing national outcry has deeply embarrassed the White House, which has refused to say how many people have enrolled through the federal exchange. . . . ‘These are not glitches,’ said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. ‘The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, “It’s awful, just awful.”’ . . . Politics made things worse. To avoid giving ammunition to Republicans opposed to the project, the administration put off issuing several major rules until after last November’s elections. . . . Administration officials dug in their heels, repeatedly insisting that the project was on track despite evidence to the contrary. . . . Deadline after deadline was missed. The biggest contractor, CGI Federal, was awarded its $94 million contract in December 2011. But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process. 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. . . . By early this year, people inside and outside the federal bureaucracy were raising red flags. ‘We foresee a train wreck,’ an insurance executive working on information technology said in a February interview. . . . But Mr. Chao’s superiors at the Department of Health and Human Services told him, in effect, that failure was not an option, according to people who have spoken with him. Nor was rolling out the system in stages or on a smaller scale, as companies like Google typically do so that problems can more easily and quietly be fixed. Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law.”
And so this is the result: CBS 2 in New York reports, “Two weeks after the Affordable Care Act online marketplace opened, many people have reported continued trouble logging onto HealthCare.gov. . . . CBS 2 tested out the New York and New Jersey marketplace websites, but hit virtual walls of error messages just registering. . . . CBS 2 checked and found government records showed the federal government dished out nearly $400 million in contracts to 55 contractors on the exchange website and data hub — including the exchange site for New Jersey. With that hefty price tag, what’s up with all the problems? . . . A review by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found contractors that were awarded bids on the project were actually better-known for things such as military tanks and ammunition.”
And according to Reuters, “The Obama administration has made headway against an online bottleneck that jammed enrollment for the president's healthcare reform, but new technical problems greeted users on Monday, showing how difficult it will be to get consumers registered in time for insurance coverage to start January 1. . . . [F]urther into the process, error messages and other difficulties were apparent, leading to fresh frustrations for health insurers and nonprofit groups . . . . The administration faces growing criticism for designing Healthcare.gov with a series of gates that require visitors to set up accounts and verify their identities before getting actual information on available insurance plans and their own eligibility for federal subsidies. ‘I really don't think that anybody knows how difficult it's going to be to get Healthcare.gov fully functioning,’ said Jon Kingsdale, a widely respected expert on market exchanges, who oversaw the first such operation in Massachusetts.”
Politico adds, “The health law’s least popular component — the requirement to obtain insurance or face a tax penalty — also features a lengthy list of exceptions for people facing certain hardships like foreclosure, domestic violence or homelessness. Members of certain religious sects or Native American tribes also are exempt. But if the online system for getting into Obamacare coverage is rickety, the system for getting out of the mandate doesn’t even exist yet. HHS says it will take another month at least for the administration to finalize the forms. The Obama administration estimates that as many as 12 million people will seek exemptions through the federal enrollment system. But if they try now through HealthCare.gov, a customer service representative will tell them that applications aren’t available. . . . The Department of Health and Human Services says the exemption application should be posted to HealthCare.gov within weeks — after a 30-day public comment period and a review by budget officials.”
The Obama administration was warned about many of these problems for months leading up to the launch. And Republicans predicted from the beginning that such a massive government undertaking would be fraught with difficulty. But as the NYT reports, all of the warnings were brushed aside in favor of political expediency: “Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law.”
It’s been so bad, that even former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs couldn’t hide his disgust on MSNBC yesterday. He said, “Let's just say this is excruciatingly embarrassing for the White House and for the Department of Health and Human Services. This was bungled badly. This was not a server problem, like, right, just too many people came to the website. This is a website architecture problem. . . . And I will say this. I hope they are working day and night to get this done. And when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work.”
Obamacare Website is Crap!
Tags: ISenate, House, shutdown, funding, Obamacare website, news reports To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1569, Democrats’ debt ceiling bill. Yesterday, the Senate voted 90-0 to confirm Madeline Haikala to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama.
The House convened at 10 AM. The House is focused on a Continuing Resolution and the Debt Ceiling.
Yesterday the House passed H.J. Res. 80 (233-160) — "Making continuing appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the Indian Health Service for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Getting America back on the path to fiscal responsibility should be a top priority for lawmakers as Congress debates increasing the debt ceiling and a bill to keep the federal government running. Public notice has released a briefing book which introduces readers to the current federal spending environment, review the history of the debt limit, and look at what will happen now that we have reached our statutory spending limit.
While open lines of communication in Washington are a good step forward, Americans must be vigilant in making sure that lawmakers are not so afraid of being blamed for gridlock that they forget about their obligations to the American people. Two years ago, an historic bipartisan consensus was forged that resulted in the first deficit under $1 trillion. The Budget Control Act of 2100 is the law of the land, and the House, Senate, and President Obama must abide by it. Any resolution on the shutdown and debt ceiling debate must keep intact those bipartisan limits and must address our nation's $16.7 trillion of debt. If the status quo of running up spending and never making cuts is allowed to prevail, an even worse fiscal crisis is not that far off.
Two weeks in to the launch of the Obamacare exchange website and every day there are new stories about problems, failures, and poor design and planning on the part of the Obama administration.
Over the weekend, The New York Times published an important report about the system. The Times wrote, “In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for the Obama administration’s new online insurance marketplace, told industry executives that he was deeply worried about the Web site’s debut. ‘Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience,’ he told them. Two weeks after the rollout, few would say his hopes were realized. For the past 12 days, a system costing more than $400 million and billed as a one-stop click-and-go hub for citizens seeking health insurance has thwarted the efforts of millions to simply log in. The growing national outcry has deeply embarrassed the White House, which has refused to say how many people have enrolled through the federal exchange. . . . ‘These are not glitches,’ said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. ‘The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, “It’s awful, just awful.”’ . . . Politics made things worse. To avoid giving ammunition to Republicans opposed to the project, the administration put off issuing several major rules until after last November’s elections. . . . Administration officials dug in their heels, repeatedly insisting that the project was on track despite evidence to the contrary. . . . Deadline after deadline was missed. The biggest contractor, CGI Federal, was awarded its $94 million contract in December 2011. But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process. 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. . . . By early this year, people inside and outside the federal bureaucracy were raising red flags. ‘We foresee a train wreck,’ an insurance executive working on information technology said in a February interview. . . . But Mr. Chao’s superiors at the Department of Health and Human Services told him, in effect, that failure was not an option, according to people who have spoken with him. Nor was rolling out the system in stages or on a smaller scale, as companies like Google typically do so that problems can more easily and quietly be fixed. Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law.”
And so this is the result: CBS 2 in New York reports, “Two weeks after the Affordable Care Act online marketplace opened, many people have reported continued trouble logging onto HealthCare.gov. . . . CBS 2 tested out the New York and New Jersey marketplace websites, but hit virtual walls of error messages just registering. . . . CBS 2 checked and found government records showed the federal government dished out nearly $400 million in contracts to 55 contractors on the exchange website and data hub — including the exchange site for New Jersey. With that hefty price tag, what’s up with all the problems? . . . A review by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found contractors that were awarded bids on the project were actually better-known for things such as military tanks and ammunition.”
And according to Reuters, “The Obama administration has made headway against an online bottleneck that jammed enrollment for the president's healthcare reform, but new technical problems greeted users on Monday, showing how difficult it will be to get consumers registered in time for insurance coverage to start January 1. . . . [F]urther into the process, error messages and other difficulties were apparent, leading to fresh frustrations for health insurers and nonprofit groups . . . . The administration faces growing criticism for designing Healthcare.gov with a series of gates that require visitors to set up accounts and verify their identities before getting actual information on available insurance plans and their own eligibility for federal subsidies. ‘I really don't think that anybody knows how difficult it's going to be to get Healthcare.gov fully functioning,’ said Jon Kingsdale, a widely respected expert on market exchanges, who oversaw the first such operation in Massachusetts.”
Politico adds, “The health law’s least popular component — the requirement to obtain insurance or face a tax penalty — also features a lengthy list of exceptions for people facing certain hardships like foreclosure, domestic violence or homelessness. Members of certain religious sects or Native American tribes also are exempt. But if the online system for getting into Obamacare coverage is rickety, the system for getting out of the mandate doesn’t even exist yet. HHS says it will take another month at least for the administration to finalize the forms. The Obama administration estimates that as many as 12 million people will seek exemptions through the federal enrollment system. But if they try now through HealthCare.gov, a customer service representative will tell them that applications aren’t available. . . . The Department of Health and Human Services says the exemption application should be posted to HealthCare.gov within weeks — after a 30-day public comment period and a review by budget officials.”
The Obama administration was warned about many of these problems for months leading up to the launch. And Republicans predicted from the beginning that such a massive government undertaking would be fraught with difficulty. But as the NYT reports, all of the warnings were brushed aside in favor of political expediency: “Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law.”
It’s been so bad, that even former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs couldn’t hide his disgust on MSNBC yesterday. He said, “Let's just say this is excruciatingly embarrassing for the White House and for the Department of Health and Human Services. This was bungled badly. This was not a server problem, like, right, just too many people came to the website. This is a website architecture problem. . . . And I will say this. I hope they are working day and night to get this done. And when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work.”
Obamacare Website is Crap!
Tags: ISenate, House, shutdown, funding, Obamacare website, news reports To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 12:23 PM - Post Link
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