Train Wreck: Obamacare Computer Sytem / Website A Complete Mess
Today in Washington, D.C. - Oct. 11, 2013 Day 11 of Government Shutdown!
The Senate reconvened at 10:30 AM. Republican senators to attend a meeting at the White House.
Yesterday, Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) asked unanimous consent to pass H.J. Res. 91, a House-passed bill ensuring the military pays survivor benefits during the government shutdown. No senator objected and the bill was passed.
Also yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1569, Democrats’ clean debt ceiling bill that would add over $1 trillion to the debt limit with no reforms. A vote on cloture on the motion to proceed (i.e. whether to take up the bill) is scheduled for tomorrow, but could be held this afternoon if an agreement is reached.
The House reconvened at 9:00 AM.
The House today considered and passed this morning H.J. Res. 76 (226 - 195)— the Nuclear Weapon Security and Non-Proliferation Act - "Making continuing appropriations for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Also, the House may based on a response from the Senate readdress H.R. 2642, the Agriculture Appropriations bill.
Yesterday, The House passed H.J. Res. 79 (249-175) — "Making continuing appropriations for certain components of the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Speaker John Boehner commented on the passage of the of H.J. Res. 76: “Ensuring the safety of our nuclear weapons arsenal and preventing the spread of nuclear technology to hostile regimes and terrorists are critical to America’s security. Senate Democrats shouldn’t let a disagreement over whether Americans should be treated fairly under ObamaCare jeopardize our national security. They should pass this bill immediately - as well as legislation funding other priorities like veterans benefits and cancer research - while we work to find a way to reopen the government and tackle the drivers of our debt that threaten our economy and our children’s future.”
After meeting with the President, House Republicans and Senate Democrats may move forward to establish a short term Continuing Resolution to fund the reopen all of the Government.
At the end of a bad week for the rollout of Obamacare, the Washington Free Beacon notes, “NBC’s Nightly News reported on the disastrous rollout of Obamacare Thursday night, with correspondent Tom Costello calling the website ‘the focus of ridicule’ and quoting experts who could hardly fathom a ‘worse launch of a nationwide site.’” Costello reported, “Week 2 of the Obamacare rollout and the ‘Please Wait’ sign at healthcare.gov remains the focus of ridicule . . . from Capitol Hill to late night TV. . . . By most accounts the website has been a complete mess: locking up, crashing, and kicking off potential customers. Of the 260 people who tried to sign up at this Miami clinic in the first week, only a single person got through. in online discussion groups, computer experts talk of major coding and software problems that could take weeks or months to fix. ‘It’s tough to have a worse launch of a nationwide site,’ said one. . . . For months, experts say they tried to warn the White House healthcare.gov wasn’t ready to go live, but the administration decided to go with it anyway.” Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates told NBC, “I think everybody is shocked who’s been watching this from the inside at how bad it really is, and how bad the computer programming and software and code and architecture is.”
The Wall Street Journal adds today, “Government officials are considering rebuilding some parts of the federally run health-insurance marketplace that have been identified as the key flaws that blocked many consumers from getting coverage. Much of the problem stems from a design element that requires users of the federal site, which serves 36 states, to create accounts before shopping for insurance, according to policy and technology experts. The site, healthcare.gov, was initially going to include an option to browse before registering, but that tool was delayed, people familiar with the situation said. The decision to move ahead without that feature proved crucial because, before users can begin shopping for coverage, they must cross a busy digital junction in which data are swapped among separate computer systems built or run by contractors including CGI Group Inc., the healthcare.gov developer; Quality Software Services Inc., a UnitedHealth Group Inc. unit; and credit-checker Experian PLC. If any part of the web of systems fails to work properly, it could lead to a traffic jam blocking most users from the marketplace. That's just what happened . . . . The series of decisions and technical stumbles came together like a perfect storm amid political pressure to open the marketplaces on the health-overhaul law's deadline of Oct. 1, according to the accounts of multiple people involved in the exchange and experts following the developments. . . . The problems haven't yet been resolved, but people familiar with the situation said officials are debating whether to replace parts of the registration system this weekend. . . . Outside technology experts and people close to the situation say the first week and half of exchange operations has revealed a half-finished product. ‘The fatal mistake they made is bringing up everything at once,’ making debugging the sprawling system a challenge, said David Starr, a former chief information officer for 3Com Corp., ITT Corp. and other large companies. But, ‘it's almost always better to postpone things than bring them up broken,’ said Mr. Starr, who is not involved in the exchange development.”
Meanwhile, reporting on an event to promote Obamacare in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a front-row view of the problems plaguing the website that the government established to allow people to shop for health insurance under Obamacare. Sebelius and Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website. Unable to handle heavy online traffic and riddled with technical glitches, the website has been a source of criticism of the Obama administration and the new Affordable Care Act since its start on Oct. 1. . . . About 20 people armed with laptops and certified by the government to sign up people for coverage were meeting with uninsured people, answering questions and fruitlessly trying to access the website.”
This rollout has been such a disaster that NBC News is calling it “a complete mess” and “the focus of ridicule,” and people at an event put on by the HHS Secretary couldn’t even use the website to sign up. It’s been so bad that software experts have been blasting the launch all week, saying things like, “I would be ashamed and embarrassed if my organization delivered something like that,” “[D]id the people doing the work know what they were doing?,” and “It’s tough to have a worse launch of a nationwide site.”
And as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The rollout of this thing made a trip to the DMV look like a good time.”
And CBS reported on the rollout and took the following computer screen shot of the crash on the first day Obamacare was to be operational:
Tags: NDay 11, Government shutdown, House, funds, Nuclear Weapon Security and Non-Proliferation Act, Obamacare website, train wreck, computer crashes To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Senate reconvened at 10:30 AM. Republican senators to attend a meeting at the White House.
Yesterday, Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) asked unanimous consent to pass H.J. Res. 91, a House-passed bill ensuring the military pays survivor benefits during the government shutdown. No senator objected and the bill was passed.
Also yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1569, Democrats’ clean debt ceiling bill that would add over $1 trillion to the debt limit with no reforms. A vote on cloture on the motion to proceed (i.e. whether to take up the bill) is scheduled for tomorrow, but could be held this afternoon if an agreement is reached.
The House reconvened at 9:00 AM.
The House today considered and passed this morning H.J. Res. 76 (226 - 195)— the Nuclear Weapon Security and Non-Proliferation Act - "Making continuing appropriations for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Also, the House may based on a response from the Senate readdress H.R. 2642, the Agriculture Appropriations bill.
Yesterday, The House passed H.J. Res. 79 (249-175) — "Making continuing appropriations for certain components of the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes."
Speaker John Boehner commented on the passage of the of H.J. Res. 76: “Ensuring the safety of our nuclear weapons arsenal and preventing the spread of nuclear technology to hostile regimes and terrorists are critical to America’s security. Senate Democrats shouldn’t let a disagreement over whether Americans should be treated fairly under ObamaCare jeopardize our national security. They should pass this bill immediately - as well as legislation funding other priorities like veterans benefits and cancer research - while we work to find a way to reopen the government and tackle the drivers of our debt that threaten our economy and our children’s future.”
After meeting with the President, House Republicans and Senate Democrats may move forward to establish a short term Continuing Resolution to fund the reopen all of the Government.
At the end of a bad week for the rollout of Obamacare, the Washington Free Beacon notes, “NBC’s Nightly News reported on the disastrous rollout of Obamacare Thursday night, with correspondent Tom Costello calling the website ‘the focus of ridicule’ and quoting experts who could hardly fathom a ‘worse launch of a nationwide site.’” Costello reported, “Week 2 of the Obamacare rollout and the ‘Please Wait’ sign at healthcare.gov remains the focus of ridicule . . . from Capitol Hill to late night TV. . . . By most accounts the website has been a complete mess: locking up, crashing, and kicking off potential customers. Of the 260 people who tried to sign up at this Miami clinic in the first week, only a single person got through. in online discussion groups, computer experts talk of major coding and software problems that could take weeks or months to fix. ‘It’s tough to have a worse launch of a nationwide site,’ said one. . . . For months, experts say they tried to warn the White House healthcare.gov wasn’t ready to go live, but the administration decided to go with it anyway.” Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates told NBC, “I think everybody is shocked who’s been watching this from the inside at how bad it really is, and how bad the computer programming and software and code and architecture is.”
The Wall Street Journal adds today, “Government officials are considering rebuilding some parts of the federally run health-insurance marketplace that have been identified as the key flaws that blocked many consumers from getting coverage. Much of the problem stems from a design element that requires users of the federal site, which serves 36 states, to create accounts before shopping for insurance, according to policy and technology experts. The site, healthcare.gov, was initially going to include an option to browse before registering, but that tool was delayed, people familiar with the situation said. The decision to move ahead without that feature proved crucial because, before users can begin shopping for coverage, they must cross a busy digital junction in which data are swapped among separate computer systems built or run by contractors including CGI Group Inc., the healthcare.gov developer; Quality Software Services Inc., a UnitedHealth Group Inc. unit; and credit-checker Experian PLC. If any part of the web of systems fails to work properly, it could lead to a traffic jam blocking most users from the marketplace. That's just what happened . . . . The series of decisions and technical stumbles came together like a perfect storm amid political pressure to open the marketplaces on the health-overhaul law's deadline of Oct. 1, according to the accounts of multiple people involved in the exchange and experts following the developments. . . . The problems haven't yet been resolved, but people familiar with the situation said officials are debating whether to replace parts of the registration system this weekend. . . . Outside technology experts and people close to the situation say the first week and half of exchange operations has revealed a half-finished product. ‘The fatal mistake they made is bringing up everything at once,’ making debugging the sprawling system a challenge, said David Starr, a former chief information officer for 3Com Corp., ITT Corp. and other large companies. But, ‘it's almost always better to postpone things than bring them up broken,’ said Mr. Starr, who is not involved in the exchange development.”
Meanwhile, reporting on an event to promote Obamacare in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a front-row view of the problems plaguing the website that the government established to allow people to shop for health insurance under Obamacare. Sebelius and Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website. Unable to handle heavy online traffic and riddled with technical glitches, the website has been a source of criticism of the Obama administration and the new Affordable Care Act since its start on Oct. 1. . . . About 20 people armed with laptops and certified by the government to sign up people for coverage were meeting with uninsured people, answering questions and fruitlessly trying to access the website.”
This rollout has been such a disaster that NBC News is calling it “a complete mess” and “the focus of ridicule,” and people at an event put on by the HHS Secretary couldn’t even use the website to sign up. It’s been so bad that software experts have been blasting the launch all week, saying things like, “I would be ashamed and embarrassed if my organization delivered something like that,” “[D]id the people doing the work know what they were doing?,” and “It’s tough to have a worse launch of a nationwide site.”
And as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The rollout of this thing made a trip to the DMV look like a good time.”
And CBS reported on the rollout and took the following computer screen shot of the crash on the first day Obamacare was to be operational:
 |
| CBS: Screen grab of the main web site for Obamacare, Healthcare.gov, which crashed on the first day of enrollment for health care coverage |
Tags: NDay 11, Government shutdown, House, funds, Nuclear Weapon Security and Non-Proliferation Act, Obamacare website, train wreck, computer crashes 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 12:28 PM - Post Link
1 Comments:
It's WORSE than a train wreck...just like Obama is!
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