About Those ObamaCare Glitches

 Posted by at 12:36 am  Politics
Oct 032013
 

Republican pundits are having a field day over the many system glitches that people encountered on the assorted exchange sites.  They are crowing that they were right all along, that ObamaCare is not ready for prime time, and that they were right to shut down the government over it.  That’s not so.  Who among you knows about the BSOD?

3BSOD

Obama administration officials were scrambling Wednesday to add computer servers to handle what they say is unexpectedly high demand on the new federal health-insurance marketplace, a centerpiece of the president’s health-care law that opened amid technical difficulties Tuesday.

The federal Web site, Healthcare.gov, got 4.7 million unique visitors in the first 24 hours it was open, and the help line received 190,000 calls, Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday. The enormous demand has caused glitches and bottlenecks, though some people were able to successfully enroll Tuesday, she said.“We expect to see similar volume as yesterday, and while this overwhelming interest is continuing to cause wait times, there will be continuing improvements in the coming hours and days,” Peters said in a statement.

Tuesday’s problems extended to Web sites run by a number of states that built their own marketplaces. The sites are the primary portals for millions of uninsured Americans to buy health plans and apply for government assistance under the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health-care law widely known as Obamacare…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

I remember when Bill Gates rolled out Windows 98, and demonstrated it to the public for the very first time.  After all the hoopla and fanfare the crowd waited with bated breath, watching the giant projection of the computer screen behind Gates.  He flipped the switch, the computer whirred, and… BSOD!!  For you young folks BSOD is the Blue Screen of Death you saw when a Windows Computer crashed.  What Gates experienced was worse than what ObamaCare did, but Windows 98 went on to be a stable, successful operating system.  Things like computer operating systems and health care exchanges are complex enough that beta testers just can’t subject them to the same rigor that end users do.  In the end, you just have to fire them up and work out the bugs.  What Republicans are crowing about is nothing more than the normal end stages of the development of any complex IT system.

Then there’s this:

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The biggest thing to note here, however, is that the main cause of the glitches is the extremely high level od stress put on the systems to handle all those millions of people trying to get what Republicans say they don’t want. HA!

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  16 Responses to “About Those ObamaCare Glitches”

  1.  Oh MY!! I remember the BSOD all too well – and that you helped me when it started happening with my elderly laptop, TC!  Oddly enough it stopped when I stopped moving the laptop and just kept it stationary – don't know why.  As you say, any new computer system has teething problems – the Repuglicons are just trying to make mountains out of molehills with the new care system – and they are just showing that they are being petty and grasping at straws!

  2. There may actually be more to it than that.  New York state is investigating the possibility that their exchange website was targeted with a DDOS hack attack.  At this point it's safe to assume the teabaggers are capable of sinking to anything.

    • I'm pretty sure the network administrators can identify a DDOS attack, by examining the content of the incoming packets.  Do you think the powersa that be aew keeping it secret?

  3. I had one BSOD – and if that doesn't make you a believer in getting an External Hard Drive (EHD), nothing will.  (I know, now there are the "clouds".  But I'm not all that trusting of them, and with the volume I have, I'd have to pay for any of them.)

    With the number of hits, one has to wonder about a Directed Denial of Service (DDOS) hacking by the Teahadists.

     

  4. I was all over CoverOregon this morning without a hitch. I was running some scenarios of low income families so I could answer an idiot. Anyway, everything worked fast and smooth. It also proved my point on affordability.

    I also tried the Kaiser Foundation Calculator. It isn't a purchase point, but does crunch the numbers for all state exchanges as well as an "average." Also proved my point. 

    Anyway, this is total nonsense. Oh, yeah. I also went on the Federal site and had no BSOD, but I didn't run the numbers there because I knew that millions of people who need health insurance would be on. I'm on Medicare, so already enjoying affordable health care.

  5. Illinois had few problems, anyone elligible for Medicaid help with Obamacare was directed to the State Agency – people needing the Federal line did have problems. Apparently Blue Cross/Blue Shield was overloaded with calls!

    I would think people would know by now that they can keep the Insurance they already have and don't Have to call if its Employer provided or Medicare or Medicaid..but News Media hasn't really Explained that much..

    The main thing News Media Hasn't explained is that CONgre$$ is losing its Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and HAS to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges! http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp  Even though they will still get "help" in purchasing it!

  6. At the VA Hospital today I was in conversation with a 64 year old teacher fron N.Y. complaining about the ACA aka Obamacare… She spewed out the Fox Noise talking points and was pro Ted Cruz… We scared out all people in the waiting room but at least we had a discussion… An old Veteran (informed) sided with me which was helpful…

  7. The system was overloaded because so many people were applying. that has to fry the Republicans.

  8. Since about 1976 when Canadian banks were initially rolling out "computers" in their branch network, I was responsible for loading updates to programmes or initiating new programmes on the branch servers.  The updates came in the form of 5 inch floppies sent out by the Bank`s computer specialists.  Even if I did absolutely everything correctly, which was about 99% of the time, there were always programme "failure to initialise" problems on the BSOD.  I did not see any windows applications until the 90`s sometime, but by then, most of the programme updates were done centrally.  We no longer had inbranch servers.  Then there were still some problems.  Not only that, even though the programmes were rigourously tested before rollout, once the actual "client load" was in, programmes became sluggish, or non responsive, or the BSOD showed its ugly face.  To me, this is normal and to be expected.

    The administration is doing the correct thing by adding additional servers and spreading the load out.  That will increase response times and lead to less frustration.

    When I think of all this, and then listen to the Republicanus/Teabaggers trying to make hay with "not ready for primetime" and the American people don`t want Obamacare, I just have to laugh at their supercilious bull shit, which has graduated from bear scat to deep, deep bull shit!

    The ones that aren`t "ready for prime time" are the Republicanus/Teabaggers.

  9. Excellent explanation!

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