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I don't know which is harder to swallow, this administration's overt hatred of the American people as a whole, or the fact that the people it is hurting the mos

I don't know which is harder to swallow, this administration's overt hatred of the American people as a whole, or the fact that the people it is hurting the most are its most fervent supporters.

Ygg2 9y ago
They don't hate all people. Just people that aren't rich.
akvadrako 9y ago
How is this on topic? healthcare.gov has been plagued with technical difficulties from the start, well before the current administration.
- samfisher83 9y ago
  It says this in the article: >As part of its mission to translate the false narrative that the Affordable Care Act is failing into reality, Tom Price’s Health and Human Services Department has already announced massive cuts to the navigator programs that fund Obamacare outreach, as well as the budget for ads that alert Americans to the existence of the open-enrollment period. It just seems like a strange coincidence they need to shutdown the site during open enrollment.
  - heartbreak 9y ago
    Maybe free bad press is how they plan to get the word out.
- dannyr 9y ago
  There technical difficulties at the start but it has long been sorted out. See https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-s...
- untog 9y ago
  It's a valid complaint. The site's technical issues have been fixed for a long time. As the article says: given the administration’s previous efforts to sabotage the insurance markets, it’s not paranoid to view this maintenance schedule as a plan to keep down enrollment We're all technical folks here. What possible reason could there be to close the site every Sunday morning for 12 hours? In what situation would that ever be the best answer for users?
  - MichaelBurge 9y ago
    > We're all technical folks here. What possible reason could there be to close the site every Sunday morning for 12 hours? In what situation would that ever be the best answer for users? Database compaction?
    - drodgers 9y ago
      What? No. You just bring-up a replica, compact that (or do any other slow operation you want), wait for it to catch-up, then fail-over, making the replica the new master. There's no excuse for doing slow, blocking maintenance operations on a live user-facing database.
      - chimeracoder 9y ago
        > There's no excuse for doing slow, blocking maintenance operations on a live user-facing database. You can't judge a government system against the best-of-class standards of the private sector (note that I did not say the typical standards, just the top-of-line). Government systems are rarely built or staffed by the top talent, often outsourced to lowest-bid contractors, and may not even have people on call for issues. It's not unusual for government sites to be scheduled to function only during standard business hours. So yeah, it sucks that this site is going to be down during some of the least likely times for people to use it (midnight to noon on Sunday), but that's not at all unusual for government sites.
        dbbk 9y ago
- lostcolony 9y ago
  Planned maintenance at varying times, on varying dates, might be reasonable. Planned maintenance every Sunday (i.e., the weekend day that the largest number of people have off, and which would be the hardest off time to staff up for for planned maintenance), a little less so.
  - strictnein 9y ago
    Wait, now we're complaining that the government is doing maintenance of some type outside of normal working hours? Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't.
    - tacomonstrous 9y ago
      A 12 hour maintenance break every week sounds a bit unlikely to be absolutely necessary.
    - lostcolony 9y ago
      "Unexpected maintenance" outside of normal working hours = good on you. "Expected (planned) maintenance" outside of normal working hours, and during expected high volumes of usage = WTF.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xfeba 9y ago
  Yes, but they were largely fixed after 2015. From the article: > No explanation was given for the outages, but given the administration’s previous efforts to sabotage the insurance markets, it’s not paranoid to view this maintenance schedule as a plan to keep down enrollment. At a minimum, it displays an indifference to the needs of the population it is supposed to be serving.
goatherders 9y ago
I have family members that live paycheck to paycheck, have very little of their future saved/set-aside, and rely on government programs and subsidies far more than they certainly realize. Challenge them on ANYTHING regarding Trump and you'll get a never-ending earful. The number of people who are in the group of "Get rid of Obamacare!" + "I have insurance through the Affordable Care Act" is startling. It absolutely shocks me the ignorance (literal use) of so many people when it comes to politics, particularly at the Federal level. Trump isn't the first time we've seen this, but it certainly feels like the most severe manifestation.
kirRoyale 9y ago
Comments like this remind me why I rarely browse hn. How does this administration hate the American people?
- dplgk 9y ago
  They have no regard for what is helpful to the common person. All they care about is dismantling what the previous administration did and pleasing special interests.
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    What you consider helpful to the common person is not what they consider helpful to the common person is not what someone else considers helpful to the common person. Adding variables like time-frame, varying definitions of "common person" only make it more complicated. People have beliefs about what is good for society at scale that no not align with yours. The current administration thinks that deregulation of industries and trade policies that protect domestic industry are the right thing to do. That belief may be misguided but it's what they believe. Whether they're right or not is still to be determined. You never really get a good picture of that until the next administration takes office anyway.
    - FussyZeus 9y ago
      > Whether they're right or not is still to be determined. In what possible way? The free market has utterly failed healthcare. Costs are higher than ever, insurance is more expensive and covers less than ever, the #1 route to bankruptcy is a medical emergency, our doctors are offing themselves at record rates, and we have boatloads of people addicted to painkillers. Exactly what way has the market done anyone any good, other than the people on the top?
      - vertex-four 9y ago
        But if you're rich you have low wait times, so it's all good. Frankly, Obamacare is a bit of a failure for some - I have friends who have "insurance plans" that don't actually cover anything without a deductible that they can't afford. Care for ongoing conditions is essentially not covered as a result. The thing is... they'd have no healthcare at all under the previous system either, so going back to that isn't a solution for them. The only real solution is single-payer healthcare paid out of taxes - unless you believe that somebody's right to live depends on how much money they make.
ferongr 9y ago
The smug grandstanding of some people is even harder.
- hsod 9y ago
  It's harder for you to stomach people complaining about injustice in an annoying way than injustice itself?

I don't know which is harder to swallow, this administration's overt hatred of the American people as a whole, or the fact that the people it is hurting the most are its most fervent supporters.

Ygg2 9y ago

They don't hate all people. Just people that aren't rich.

akvadrako 9y ago

How is this on topic? healthcare.gov has been plagued with technical difficulties from the start, well before the current administration.

samfisher83 9y ago
It says this in the article: >As part of its mission to translate the false narrative that the Affordable Care Act is failing into reality, Tom Price’s Health and Human Services Department has already announced massive cuts to the navigator programs that fund Obamacare outreach, as well as the budget for ads that alert Americans to the existence of the open-enrollment period. It just seems like a strange coincidence they need to shutdown the site during open enrollment.
- heartbreak 9y ago
  Maybe free bad press is how they plan to get the word out.
dannyr 9y ago
There technical difficulties at the start but it has long been sorted out. See https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-s...
untog 9y ago
It's a valid complaint. The site's technical issues have been fixed for a long time. As the article says: given the administration’s previous efforts to sabotage the insurance markets, it’s not paranoid to view this maintenance schedule as a plan to keep down enrollment We're all technical folks here. What possible reason could there be to close the site every Sunday morning for 12 hours? In what situation would that ever be the best answer for users?
- MichaelBurge 9y ago
  > We're all technical folks here. What possible reason could there be to close the site every Sunday morning for 12 hours? In what situation would that ever be the best answer for users? Database compaction?
  - drodgers 9y ago
    What? No. You just bring-up a replica, compact that (or do any other slow operation you want), wait for it to catch-up, then fail-over, making the replica the new master. There's no excuse for doing slow, blocking maintenance operations on a live user-facing database.
    - chimeracoder 9y ago
      > There's no excuse for doing slow, blocking maintenance operations on a live user-facing database. You can't judge a government system against the best-of-class standards of the private sector (note that I did not say the typical standards, just the top-of-line). Government systems are rarely built or staffed by the top talent, often outsourced to lowest-bid contractors, and may not even have people on call for issues. It's not unusual for government sites to be scheduled to function only during standard business hours. So yeah, it sucks that this site is going to be down during some of the least likely times for people to use it (midnight to noon on Sunday), but that's not at all unusual for government sites.
      - dbbk 9y ago
lostcolony 9y ago
Planned maintenance at varying times, on varying dates, might be reasonable. Planned maintenance every Sunday (i.e., the weekend day that the largest number of people have off, and which would be the hardest off time to staff up for for planned maintenance), a little less so.
- strictnein 9y ago
  Wait, now we're complaining that the government is doing maintenance of some type outside of normal working hours? Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  - tacomonstrous 9y ago
    A 12 hour maintenance break every week sounds a bit unlikely to be absolutely necessary.
  - lostcolony 9y ago
    "Unexpected maintenance" outside of normal working hours = good on you. "Expected (planned) maintenance" outside of normal working hours, and during expected high volumes of usage = WTF.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
0xfeba 9y ago
Yes, but they were largely fixed after 2015. From the article: > No explanation was given for the outages, but given the administration’s previous efforts to sabotage the insurance markets, it’s not paranoid to view this maintenance schedule as a plan to keep down enrollment. At a minimum, it displays an indifference to the needs of the population it is supposed to be serving.

goatherders 9y ago

I have family members that live paycheck to paycheck, have very little of their future saved/set-aside, and rely on government programs and subsidies far more than they certainly realize. Challenge them on ANYTHING regarding Trump and you'll get a never-ending earful. The number of people who are in the group of "Get rid of Obamacare!" + "I have insurance through the Affordable Care Act" is startling. It absolutely shocks me the ignorance (literal use) of so many people when it comes to politics, particularly at the Federal level. Trump isn't the first time we've seen this, but it certainly feels like the most severe manifestation.

kirRoyale 9y ago

Comments like this remind me why I rarely browse hn. How does this administration hate the American people?

dplgk 9y ago
They have no regard for what is helpful to the common person. All they care about is dismantling what the previous administration did and pleasing special interests.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  What you consider helpful to the common person is not what they consider helpful to the common person is not what someone else considers helpful to the common person. Adding variables like time-frame, varying definitions of "common person" only make it more complicated. People have beliefs about what is good for society at scale that no not align with yours. The current administration thinks that deregulation of industries and trade policies that protect domestic industry are the right thing to do. That belief may be misguided but it's what they believe. Whether they're right or not is still to be determined. You never really get a good picture of that until the next administration takes office anyway.
  - FussyZeus 9y ago
    > Whether they're right or not is still to be determined. In what possible way? The free market has utterly failed healthcare. Costs are higher than ever, insurance is more expensive and covers less than ever, the #1 route to bankruptcy is a medical emergency, our doctors are offing themselves at record rates, and we have boatloads of people addicted to painkillers. Exactly what way has the market done anyone any good, other than the people on the top?
    - vertex-four 9y ago
      But if you're rich you have low wait times, so it's all good. Frankly, Obamacare is a bit of a failure for some - I have friends who have "insurance plans" that don't actually cover anything without a deductible that they can't afford. Care for ongoing conditions is essentially not covered as a result. The thing is... they'd have no healthcare at all under the previous system either, so going back to that isn't a solution for them. The only real solution is single-payer healthcare paid out of taxes - unless you believe that somebody's right to live depends on how much money they make.

ferongr 9y ago

The smug grandstanding of some people is even harder.

hsod 9y ago
It's harder for you to stomach people complaining about injustice in an annoying way than injustice itself?