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2013-10-10 6:34 AM

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Subject: Healthcare.gov

I work in IT so I've been pretty patient and understanding about Healthcare.gov having some issues.  However, as more and more comes out it's beginning to look a lot worse than just a few technical glitches.  I guess it's turning into yet another punch line of the government buying $1000 toilet seats.

I saw this article this morning and I love the comparison of costs to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram:

We paid $634 million for the Obamacare sites and all we got was this lousy 404

Given the complicated nature of federal contracts, it’s difficult to make a direct comparison between the cost to develop Healthcare.gov and the amount of money spent building private online businesses. But for the sake of putting the monstrous amount of money into perspective, here are a few figures to chew on: Facebook, which received its first investment in June 2004, operated for a full six years before surpassing the $600 million mark in June 2010. Twitter, created in 2006, managed to get by with only $360.17 million in total funding until a $400 million boost in 2011. Instagram ginned up just $57.5 million in funding before Facebook bought it for (a staggering) $1 billion last year. And LinkedIn and Spotify, meanwhile, have only raised, respectively, $200 million and $288 million.

The budget for this website was $93.7M dollars, and according to this article the actual costs are more than $637M.  That's 580% over budget.

I snicker when I recall the talking heads in support of the ACA talking about it being revenue neutral.  This makes me a little skeptical of that (ok a lot)



2013-10-10 9:05 AM
in reply to: tuwood

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Master
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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
My very first thought when I heard about the site troubles was "how many hundreds of millions went into this thing?"  Thanks for digging up the answer.
2013-10-10 9:31 AM
in reply to: tuwood

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Chicago, Illinois
Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
Does not surprise me after I did the math. Gov probably supplied all the equipment and maybe even the space for the contracting company. At least they did in my case. If that is the case they probably send huge amount of money just for the equipment. They probably paid between 150 to 200 an hour for the developers. Plus you have a QA staff, other support staff. Do not forget upper management who needs a huge chunk to over see it. That is a lot of money right there plus any other ways of giving kick backs to people who donated money for the candidates. Yeah I can see how it costs that much.

Sad thing is if the government just did it themselves it might be cheaper since you do not have to add one or more profit centers. Then again reading of the the book bailout doing things inside the government is not so cheap either. Departments sound like they really like screw each other over.
2013-10-10 12:06 PM
in reply to: tuwood

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting.

I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again.

Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.
2013-10-10 1:18 PM
in reply to: buck1400

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov

Originally posted by buck1400 Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting. I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again. Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

2013-10-10 1:26 PM
in reply to: BrianRunsPhilly

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
Originally posted by BrianRunsPhilly

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

yup. worked for me as well.  no issues- even here in bright red Arizona. 

 

But $600M seems like way too much for a web site.  I wonder what that really included? 



2013-10-10 1:27 PM
in reply to: BrianRunsPhilly

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Master
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Washington, DC Metro
Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
Originally posted by BrianRunsPhilly

Originally posted by buck1400 Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting. I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again. Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

How far did you go?  I did the same thing out of morbid curiosity.  

Navigate to the site: No problem

Click "apply now": No problem

Click "lets get started": spinning hourglass for about 90 seconds then it returned the "web site down" page.

2013-10-10 9:08 PM
in reply to: Sous

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Cumming, Georgia
Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
I've had nothing but problems for 3 days. I finally got a list of quotes but I constantly get error messages, blank screens, redirected to the login screen, etc. The good news is the quotes aren't as bad as I was expecting. I'm self employed so I am already paying a big premium for good coverage.
2013-10-11 8:37 AM
in reply to: Sous

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
Originally posted by Sous
Originally posted by BrianRunsPhilly

Originally posted by buck1400 Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting. I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again. Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

How far did you go?  I did the same thing out of morbid curiosity.  

Navigate to the site: No problem

Click "apply now": No problem

Click "lets get started": spinning hourglass for about 90 seconds then it returned the "web site down" page.

Way past there. I got the account registration email, verified that, and went into the application for insurance. Filled that out to completion but I didn't sign and actually apply.

2013-10-11 11:45 AM
in reply to: BrianRunsPhilly

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov
huh... I guess its hit or miss.  Regardless, I'd think that $600MM we get a better experience than that which is typical of Active.com.
2013-10-15 5:45 AM
in reply to: Sous

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov

Here's an article with a take on why healthcare.gov is having so many issues.  

Obamacare's Website Is Crashing Because It Doesn't Want You To Know How Costly Its Plans Are

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it would explain why we have to go through so many steps in order to get a quote.

This might surprise you, but I can understand why the administration would want to pre-qualify individuals for subsidies prior to giving them a price as well.  If you just see a $300/mo. sticker shock you will likely just turn away versus try to sign up and see what assistance you're qualified for.

The other piece I noticed is the typical finger pointing when it comes to IT projects not going well.  The more cooks you have in the kitchen the more finger pointing that goes around.  IT Systems have to work well, and it's obvious to everyone when they don't.  It's easy to take an extra week or two processing forms in the government because everybody just expects that, but IT systems have to just work.



2013-10-15 3:19 PM
in reply to: Sous

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov

Originally posted by Sous
Originally posted by BrianRunsPhilly

Originally posted by buck1400 Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting. I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again. Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

How far did you go?  I did the same thing out of morbid curiosity.  

Navigate to the site: No problem

Click "apply now": No problem

Click "lets get started": spinning hourglass for about 90 seconds then it returned the "web site down" page.

 

Perhaps they could tell by your aggressive clicking style that you were up to no good.

 

2013-10-15 5:36 PM
in reply to: Pector55

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Subject: RE: Healthcare.gov

Originally posted by Pector55

Originally posted by Sous
Originally posted by BrianRunsPhilly

Originally posted by buck1400 Not a web development expert...but from a user point of view I will say that the user experience is getting better. As of yesterday, I can click "Login" and I go straight to a login page verses the "waiting" page I was getting. I can navigate my application fairly easily, with the exception of one strange error message that if I click on I get kicked out and have to login again. Also have poor results with Chrome; IE works much better with the site.

You guys prompted me to try and log on. No issues at all.

How far did you go?  I did the same thing out of morbid curiosity.  

Navigate to the site: No problem

Click "apply now": No problem

Click "lets get started": spinning hourglass for about 90 seconds then it returned the "web site down" page.

 

Perhaps they could tell by your aggressive clicking style that you were up to no good.

He probably had the wrong people on his friends list too.  

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