4 ms·

In this latest witch hunt I am sure there is plenty of blame to go around. This is not the first 1.0 system to have serious problems. It will get better. You wo

In this latest witch hunt I am sure there is plenty of blame to go around. This is not the first 1.0 system to have serious problems. It will get better. You would think they crashed the Space Shuttle and killed some people given the level of grilling they have received.

mgkimsal 13y ago
Ummm.... many people are now legally required to buy insurance, and this marketplace is the only option for many of those people. Saying "use the system or pay a fine, oh and by the way the system doesn't work" is not the same comparison to many other "1.0" systems which are optional to use.
- mberning 13y ago
  My understanding is that it IS possible to register rather quickly during non-peak times. You are also not required to go through the marketplace to acquire insurance. And finally, open enrollment ends in March 2014, so there is plenty of time to get this sorted. The media coverage and congressional circus is blowing this way out of proportion.
  - mgkimsal 13y ago
    Not entirely. They've completely hosed up existing data. Took me 2 weeks to get in, finally got in. Application created for my wife and I. System broke. Logged in a couple days later. My wife's data is gone. No ability to add it back in. No ability to delete current application. No ability to start a new application. It's a mess. Registering and using vastly different. Given that it took them years to get this far, I don't have a whole lot of hope that this will be usable for everyone, with data problems sorted, by March. Possible, but not likely. Especially because the attitude of "hey, just go somewhere else to buy" is so quick to be used. If that's really the case, why did we bother to even put this together, if it's not at all necessary or required? There's going to be massive loads of hidden bugs that will plague this for months, if not years. Having such a tight deadline on it is crazy because it's not at all how any large insurance agency works, nor is it how the federal government works.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - MartinCron 13y ago
      I think it's pretty obvious that if the bugs aren't sufficiently fixed within the next few weeks, the individual mandate penalty will be waived or at least delayed.
      - abarringer 13y ago
        I don't give a flying rip about the individual mandate penalty. But.. If you need insurance and you just received a cancel notice from BCBS that your policy is gone as of Jan 1st it becomes imperative that this exchange work within the next few weeks. This isn't a political game real people are going to be royally hozed and soon if this doesn't get fixed.
        MartinCron 13y ago
        You've got more than nine weeks, I have faith that even the sub-par government contractors working on this will get it sorted out by then. Feel free to come back and tell me how wrong I am if my faith turns out to be misguided.
        hga 13y ago
        No, 9 weeks would require everyone who must get a new policy by Jan 1 to get all the way through all the systems, exchanges -> insurance companies, in the last three days of December. Even if several paths are kludged for these most desperate millions of people losing their current coverage Jan 1, I can't see how any more time than 7 weeks is feasible, leaving 2 and a fraction to process them. And to know the system is really working, large numbers, 10s of thousands, had better be getting successfully through the systems before then.
    - hsod 13y ago
      > If that's really the case, why did we bother to even put this together, if it's not at all necessary or required? For convenience?
  - abarringer 13y ago
    As someone very interested in signing up for ObamaCare this isn't just media+congress circus. And March '14 isn't the date that individual plans go kaput. Most of us in FL and I assume other states got notices from BCBS that our plans end on Jan 1st. That means we must signup before Dec. 15th on healthcare.gov. My experience with healthcare.gov... I think I must've been the first person in the US to successfully create and account and apply. I received my authentication confirmation email at 4am on Oct. 1st. However... I still haven't been able to view any plans. When I click the "View eligible plans" button it goes to a 404. Sometimes it's a 50x, sometimes it just times-out. I've tried nearly every day since Oct. 1st. I've tried early, I've tried late, I've tried on the weekdays and weekends... I've tried re-applying, I've tried applying in another state we are thinking of moving to. From my experience healthcare.gov is radically busted. So yes, you can create an account, enter all your personal information and "apply" but you sure can't see any plans that you are qualified for or actually you know signup. However, healthcare.gov generally seems very quick, very responsive, I thought the UI for signup an authentication was good. YMMV
    - hga 13y ago
      Extending your remarks, it is estimated that about 16 million people and families on the individual? market are losing their existing plans come Jan 1st because they aren't grandfathered and of course don't meet all the gold-plating in the floor plan (e.g. coverage of your children till age 26). There are of course replacement plans, but they're a lot more expensive because they by law must cover a lot more stuff. As I understand it, If you are due a subsidy, as of now the only way you can get it is through the Federal exchange. State exchanges must use its subsidy calculator, ditto insurance companies (the latter is reported to have been a very low priority item in the system development). As things look now (putting on my student of failed projects cap), a lot of people are going to be without insurance of any sort come Jan 1, especially because they can't afford whatever policies they're de jure or de facto allowed to buy. Which could easily kill as many people as lost in the Space Shuttle program ... except they didn't volunteer for something so obviously dangerous.
pessimizer 13y ago
No, the Space Shuttle is far less important.

mgkimsal 13y ago

Ummm.... many people are now legally required to buy insurance, and this marketplace is the only option for many of those people. Saying "use the system or pay a fine, oh and by the way the system doesn't work" is not the same comparison to many other "1.0" systems which are optional to use.

mberning 13y ago
My understanding is that it IS possible to register rather quickly during non-peak times. You are also not required to go through the marketplace to acquire insurance. And finally, open enrollment ends in March 2014, so there is plenty of time to get this sorted. The media coverage and congressional circus is blowing this way out of proportion.
- mgkimsal 13y ago
  Not entirely. They've completely hosed up existing data. Took me 2 weeks to get in, finally got in. Application created for my wife and I. System broke. Logged in a couple days later. My wife's data is gone. No ability to add it back in. No ability to delete current application. No ability to start a new application. It's a mess. Registering and using vastly different. Given that it took them years to get this far, I don't have a whole lot of hope that this will be usable for everyone, with data problems sorted, by March. Possible, but not likely. Especially because the attitude of "hey, just go somewhere else to buy" is so quick to be used. If that's really the case, why did we bother to even put this together, if it's not at all necessary or required? There's going to be massive loads of hidden bugs that will plague this for months, if not years. Having such a tight deadline on it is crazy because it's not at all how any large insurance agency works, nor is it how the federal government works.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    I think it's pretty obvious that if the bugs aren't sufficiently fixed within the next few weeks, the individual mandate penalty will be waived or at least delayed.
    - abarringer 13y ago
      I don't give a flying rip about the individual mandate penalty. But.. If you need insurance and you just received a cancel notice from BCBS that your policy is gone as of Jan 1st it becomes imperative that this exchange work within the next few weeks. This isn't a political game real people are going to be royally hozed and soon if this doesn't get fixed.
      - MartinCron 13y ago
        You've got more than nine weeks, I have faith that even the sub-par government contractors working on this will get it sorted out by then. Feel free to come back and tell me how wrong I am if my faith turns out to be misguided.
        hga 13y ago
        No, 9 weeks would require everyone who must get a new policy by Jan 1 to get all the way through all the systems, exchanges -> insurance companies, in the last three days of December. Even if several paths are kludged for these most desperate millions of people losing their current coverage Jan 1, I can't see how any more time than 7 weeks is feasible, leaving 2 and a fraction to process them. And to know the system is really working, large numbers, 10s of thousands, had better be getting successfully through the systems before then.
  - hsod 13y ago
    > If that's really the case, why did we bother to even put this together, if it's not at all necessary or required? For convenience?
- abarringer 13y ago
  As someone very interested in signing up for ObamaCare this isn't just media+congress circus. And March '14 isn't the date that individual plans go kaput. Most of us in FL and I assume other states got notices from BCBS that our plans end on Jan 1st. That means we must signup before Dec. 15th on healthcare.gov. My experience with healthcare.gov... I think I must've been the first person in the US to successfully create and account and apply. I received my authentication confirmation email at 4am on Oct. 1st. However... I still haven't been able to view any plans. When I click the "View eligible plans" button it goes to a 404. Sometimes it's a 50x, sometimes it just times-out. I've tried nearly every day since Oct. 1st. I've tried early, I've tried late, I've tried on the weekdays and weekends... I've tried re-applying, I've tried applying in another state we are thinking of moving to. From my experience healthcare.gov is radically busted. So yes, you can create an account, enter all your personal information and "apply" but you sure can't see any plans that you are qualified for or actually you know signup. However, healthcare.gov generally seems very quick, very responsive, I thought the UI for signup an authentication was good. YMMV
  - hga 13y ago
    Extending your remarks, it is estimated that about 16 million people and families on the individual? market are losing their existing plans come Jan 1st because they aren't grandfathered and of course don't meet all the gold-plating in the floor plan (e.g. coverage of your children till age 26). There are of course replacement plans, but they're a lot more expensive because they by law must cover a lot more stuff. As I understand it, If you are due a subsidy, as of now the only way you can get it is through the Federal exchange. State exchanges must use its subsidy calculator, ditto insurance companies (the latter is reported to have been a very low priority item in the system development). As things look now (putting on my student of failed projects cap), a lot of people are going to be without insurance of any sort come Jan 1, especially because they can't afford whatever policies they're de jure or de facto allowed to buy. Which could easily kill as many people as lost in the Space Shuttle program ... except they didn't volunteer for something so obviously dangerous.

pessimizer 13y ago

No, the Space Shuttle is far less important.