Many people trying to access HealthCare.gov and state health insurance websites encountered technical difficulties. This happens with all new software roll-outs, explain Administration officials. “Give us the same slack you give Apple,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Software geeks scoff at the site’s buggy and badly-written code.
“But the Obama administration doesn’t have a basically working product that would be improved by a software update. They have a Web site 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 Tim Cook’s head.
The good news for Obamacare is that lots of people want to sign up. Lots and lots of people. Many more, in fact, than anyone expected. The bad news is that the Obama administration’s online insurance marketplace — which serves 34 states — can’t handle the success.”
— “Obamacare’s Web site is really bad,” Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Washington Post blog
More:
“Obamacare: The User Experience,” Sam Grobart, Bloomberg/Businessweek
“Obamacare’s Websites Are Still Broken,” Daniel Stuckey, Motherboard
“Obamacare’s biggest problem right now isn’t glitches. It’s traffic.” Sarah Kliff, Washington Post blog
“Obamacare Sites Still Swamped but Wait Times Cut,” Katie Moisse, ABC News
“Obamacare Glitches Are Real—and Matter Less Than You Think,” Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic
“Here’s why getting the Obamacare exchanges to work was so difficult,” Timothy B. Lee, Washington Post blog
“Crashing Websites, Grumbling Users: Obamacare’s Debut Is a Typical Tech Launch,” Joshua Brustein, Businessweek
“Health care website gets down time for repairs,” Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
“ObamaCare site under scrutiny,” Elise Viebeck, The Hill
“Software, Design Defects Cripple Health-Care Website,” Christopher Weaver, Shira Ovide, and Louise Radnofsky, Wall Street Journal
“A design critique of HealthCare.Gov,’ Joey Marburger and Sarah Sampsel, Washington Post blog
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Image (“Healthcare.gov User Experience, after Vesalius”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: ACA, health care, health insurance, Healthcare.gov, Obamacare, User Experience, UX, website rollout, websites
October 22, 2013 at 11:56 pm
Howard Dean (democrat) says obalmycare is a bailout of the insurance companies in return for bribes (contributions) they paid out to BOTH democrats and republicans. That’s why republicans only put up token resistance to it.
What industry wouldn’t want the government to force 50,000,000 people to become customers overnight?
Of course, none of these “conservatives” bitched when auto insurance became mandatory. This is largely modeled after that.
“People get the government they deserve.” – John Updike/Author
http://dev.fixhealthcarepolicy.com/health-care-news/howard-dean-obamacare-bigger-bailout-for-insurance-companies-than-aig/