The president never admits grand problems with Obamacare. The Obamacare website, which offers as an immediate solution call centers operating 24 hours a day, in 150 states, through which interested Americans can enroll for health insurance through Obamacare. Just dial 1-800-318-2596.
Talk about selling out a client. After weeks of radio silence, CGI Federal, Inc., a subsidiary of the Canadian firm CGI Group, the top contractor charged with developing the federally run health insurance marketplace website, Healthcare.gov, came out blazing blame at the federal government when pushed to name a culprit for the tech glitches severely denting health insurance enrollment.
Pointing Fingers
There’s a lot of highly unproductive finger-pointing going on as to who’s at fault for the tech hiccups related to the federally run health insurance exchange site. Republicans have called out Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius strongly suggesting that she resign from her post.
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And now, the contractor laser-beamed blame at the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency, reports The New York Times. In an interview CGI Federal, Inc. had with congressional investigators, the contractor said a design-change request was made less than one month prior to the Oct. 1 launch of Healthcare.gov (the site built and operated by the federal government for the 36 states that refused to build and run their own). The change requested prohibited casual scrolling of health insurance plans on the site, requiring visitors instead to first open an account as step one of the enrollment process to unlock policy options.
Dear Mr. President
Following the interview, California Republican Darrell Issa, a House committee chairman, released a letter (from the five-person House committee) to CIO Steven VanRoekel, the Obama Administration’s top IT official. In a Rose Garden speech Monday, President Obama affirmed and acknowledged the tech glitches that have hindered health insurance enrollment. The president also showered positive words on the states that chose to build their own state-run exchanges, which rocketed much more successfully on Oct. 1.
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President Obama affirmed that the Healthcare.gov online health insurance exchange “is going to get fixed,” and then posed an immediate solution for the frustrated: those in any state who are interested in potentially finding health insurance can call 1-800-318-2596 and enroll by phone. Call centers will be available 24 hours a day and in 150 languages.
“We did not wage this long and contentious battle just around a website … We waged this battle to make sure that millions of Americans in the wealthiest nation on earth finally have the same chance to get the same security of affordable, quality health care as anyone else,” said President Obama.
Underlying Issues
One issue this gaffe illustrated is that the United States must advance its education of technology and innovation if we are to continue to compete with the world, along with education in all STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and math). We must get our youth focused more on useful information than celebrity couplings and splittings. It also leaves the question as to why a company such as Apple has never had such technical glitches when it rolls out a new product. There is an increasingly large technical and digital divide in the country. A recent Pew survey found that 15 percent of Americans, or about 1 in 7, do not use the Internet at all.
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Is Obamacare Working at All?
More than half a million people gave filed applications for coverage, said the president, though it’s not clear how many are from state-run and how many from federally run exchanges. “The prices are lower than we expected,” said President Obama. “The choice is greater than we expected.”
Still, even supporters of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) are agitated. They want a specific time frame for when the tech problems will be solved.
In the investigation interview, CGI did not report whether it had explained to HHS that the requested design change (requiring account creation) would negatively alter launch of the health insurance marketplace website, reported the Wall Street Journal.
While CGI did place blame on the government, it refused to name the individual responsible for requesting the design change.
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Action Being Taken
HHS has said it is bringing in tech heavyweights for reinforcement, reportedly government as well as private sector IT specialists. The Obama Administration has also dispatched Presidential Innovation Fellows for the cause.
While finding out exactly what went wrong does serve a purpose, it’s clear that the main priority where government officials’ energy should be going is: how to get this site up and running smoothly. In the meantime, tell everyone you know that those who would like to research their health insurance options and potentially enroll can call 1-800-318-2596 anytime during the day or night.
Julie D. Andrews is a writer and editor living in New York City. Follow her on Twitter @julieDandrews.
