I smell a rat with Obamacare rollout

[politicaljunkie41910]

I think that someone has deliberately sabotaged the ACA signup systems. After all we know about secret meetings within the GOP with the Koch brothers, Freedomworks, and Heritage, why is not so farfetched to think that as a last resort they may have plotted to keep the system from getting off the ground by making sure that people were not able to sign up and therefore making it out to be a disaster before it can get off the ground.

With all we know about Snowden and how much plotting went on with him and that guy from the Guardian, and how far back the deceit went, I would not be surprise to learn down the road that this was another plot to destroy the ACA. I work in contracting. Private contractors would have bid on and been responsible for designing this system. Today we hear about the system using 10 year old technology. This is bullsh!t. How hard would it have been for some Obama haters to plant some bad codes creating hidden time bombs into the system.

I'm curious as to what others think particularly from those of you with experience in this area.

[Ian David]

1. Thank you, Captain Obvious. n/t

[Botany]

2. Although the same company that is doing the I.T. work for the A.C.A. was fired ....

... by the Provence of Ontario for failures in it's I.T. system.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Certainly sounds plausible.

Doesn't affect me but its bad form.

[CTyankee]

4. What is the famous Law that says that the most obvious answer is always the correct answer.

That Law could be applied on both sides of this question, too, I guess.

[mrgorth]

6. Occam's Razor

Yeah, this is a little tin foil hat-ey. Not saying it's impossible but the more likely solution is more traffic than was anticipated.

[CTyankee]

17. I must admit that when I first heard about the computer glitches I suspected sabotage.

After all, the republicans shut down the government and nearly wrecked the U.S. economy over Obamacare. Having a saboteur in the company designing the website isn't that much more of a stretch...

[winter is coming]

5. It's certainly possible, but lousy software done on the cheap is also possible. n/t

[jeff47]

7. There's no need for anything nefarious

The site was slammed with more traffic than it would handle any other time. That massive number of requests is going to bring down pretty much any system.

As the traffic has let off some, and a few tweaks were installed, it's gotten much better. To the point where there really isn't any problem using it now.

The same thing happens when something popular rolls out in the commercial world - lines at Apple stores or outside movie theaters are treated as good things, when it's the same lack-of-capacity problem.

As for some details:

Today we hear about the system using 10 year old technology.

The Internet is 44 year old technology. Age isn't necessarily a good measure for capacity and reliability.

[politicaljunkie41910]

8. I want to believe that you're right, and was willing to do so.

This morning I heard on the news that there are major problems, and there is skepticism that it can be fixed quickly, which is why I'm now concerned that this may be deliberate.

While I hadn't had time to read this article, it implies that there are major issues as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/obamacare-train-wreck_n_4118041.html

[jeff47]

10. The news is reporting a disaster, because that gets you to read their stories.

If you actually go to Healthcare.gov, it generally works.

[former9thward]

13. No, the traffic would not "bring down any system."

Amazon and Facebook and Twitter get far, far more traffic on a daily basis than the ACA site. I don't see them crashing. It was a poorly designed site. Afterall they only had 3 1/2 years to do it.

[jeff47]

14. Now.

Amazon, Facebook and Twitter can handle a lot of traffic now.

All three were repeatedly crushed by traffic early in their existence.

Additionally, there's a flood of people signing up right now because the exchanges are just starting up. Next year, there will be far fewer people hitting these sites, because only people with some sort of change will be going to healthcare.gov.

[former9thward]

15. They had 3 1/2 years to do this.

One would think their designers would look at high volume sites to see how it is done. It is not secret. Amazon did not wait around for 3 1/2 years trying to figure it out.

10 year old technology???

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/17/health-exchange-week-three-start-over/2995989/

[jeff47]

20. No, Amazon took about 5 years to figure it out.

As for "10 year old technology!", the Internet is 44 year old technology. Age is not necessarily a measure of appropriateness.

If I was designing healthcare.gov, you can be damn sure I wouldn't be leaping on the latest bandwagon. "Our super REST software is great! Oh wait...it can only handle 3 simultaneous users because it wasn't tested over years of abuse...oops".

Instead, I'd use something proven. Which inherently means it will be "old technology".

[former9thward]

25. And you would end up like healthcare.gov

The technology and software that powers the internet is not 44 years old. It is constantly developing.

[CTyankee]

18. I still have problems with Amazon some times. It shouldn't happen but it sometimes does...

However, another problem with the ACA website is that it is much more complicated than stuff like Facebook and Twitter.

[Scuba]

9. It's ridiculously farfetched to think that ....

... the Koch brothers didn't at least consider sabotaging the ACA rollout. It would be their style exactly.

One of their most prominent tools admitedthat he used such underhanded tactics in Wisconsin and even considered endangering public safety by planting fake protesters and having them cause trouble during the 2011 protests.

To wit:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. What I've been reading on IT blogs

1. The system is massively complex (with regard to coding). It suffered from the "too many cooks" syndrome with everybody wanting to add this and to add that. Makes having the system work as an "organic" whole terribly difficult.

2. They didn't have nearly enough time. Work didn't begin in earnest until March. Many blogs I read have marveled that they had a system up and running at all.

In the next several weeks/months, the system will be functioning as it should. Now it may be that the deadline for signing up might be extended by a few months. While they'll howl like scorched cats on Fox News, this is really not a big deal.

[Tippy]

12. I feel the same as you do, I think the system was deliberatly sabotaged began thinking

this way since the first reports about a problem...Seems like the Koch Bros would do something like this they will do anything and everything to stop President Obama..."Just a glich" just didn't cut it for me...

[former9thward]

16. It wasn't a glich or a conspiracy.

Using 10 year old technology doesn't work too well. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/17/health-exchange-week-three-start-over/2995989/

[CTyankee]

19. well, whose idea was it to use 10 year old technology? That, in itself, could be the "sabotage."

That way, there are no "fingerprints."

[former9thward]

23. I suspect we will find out.

Who approved it? I don't know but we may find out.

[seabeckind]

21. Hanlon's razor

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Starting in the late 80's the gov't went into a massive contracting out effort that was driven by the budget/accounting people. They believed since they controlled the money, they should have a lot more say in how systems were designed and implemented. They began to work directly with contractors and used the gov't systems people as gofers.

If you look at all the development projects that began after that time they all suffer from the same problems. Cost overruns, revamping of specifications, etc. These problems were usually caused because there wasn't enough requirements analysis ahead of time -- gotta get up and running, don't have time to look first.

It isn't the direction that counts, it's the speed.

Examples? VA. IRS. DoD payroll. Accounting. etc.

As far as this system? I would guess that they scrimped on testing, especially stress and interfaces.

[seabeckind]

22. Addendum

Another thing that came to mind...

The ideal model for a large development effort is a pyramidal layout. Everything flows toward a point at the top that oversees the various elements and sub-elements below it.

Most large development efforts done by the gov't tend to be more disjointed -- a blobular layout. There's nobody with the expertise to see how the entire system meshes or if that person exists, not having the authority to control the pieces.

Added on edit: contractors with cost-plus absolutely love the blobular layout. Lots more people, lots less accountability.

[polichick]

24. Any media people taking about this yet?

[Hoyt]

26. From start, they should have separated (1) applying for insurance and (2) browsing plans.

I think most people have been browsing/researching the various plans. I think most people would want to review the plans, think about it, and then apply. Also a lot of people who will not buy insurance on the exchanges were looking.

Instead, initially you had to go through the application process to view any of the plans. That sucked big time.

Now, you can go and bypass the application process and actually look at the various health plans offered. That worked perfectly for me on day one.

Whatever, somebody needs to get on this and get it fixed quickly, even if it means deleting everything to date and telling everyone to start over.

[mainer]

27. +100000

When you go online to shop retail stores, the websites don't require you to provide ID and credit information just to look at their merchandise. This was idiotic. Kansas separated the browsing and purchase functions on their websites, and they had no problems.

[kestrel91316]

28. I think sabotage masquerading as incompetence is highly likely.

We KNOW the RW will stop at nothing to get their way.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. I think anything bad that ever happens is sabotage.

And therefore a RW plot. So clearly the ACA rollout, which MIGHT be the simplest rollout of any new program, anywhere, ever, has been sabotaged by the right.

[SmittynMo]

30. 10 year old technology? I really doubt it.

10 years ago, they weren't even thinking about the ACA. I would suspect that this all came about within the past 2-3 years. To accomplish this task of building the web site, development and design work had to have been done, which should include infrastructure (hardware, network, wiring, etc). You can hire someone that houses small data centers(security risk) to save time, but the hardware piece must be in place first. I'm sure that purchase was new equipment, as to be sure to get the latest, and greatest hardware/software. This step has to occur first, as it is then the developers and engineers playground. Once this occurs, software is purchased and/or written, modified then tested. I would suspect they did not spend enough time in the testing phase prior to implementation.

As for contractors, yes, someone from the far right GOP, could be hired to do a specific job (based on his/her qualifications), and have some fun with processes and/or code at the same time. There is, however, most likely an audit trail for everything everybody does. But who is watching the audit trail of thousands of employees? If the contractor is caught, they will be prosecuted. But of course, this will be after the fact.

[Revanchist]

31. Sometimes bad code is just bad code

I've seen other threads comparing healthcare.gov to the launch days of video games such as GTA and there have been plenty of horrific launch days for computer products, and those games had months, if not years of developing and testing.

I don't think there is any big conspiracy, it was a case of demanding too many features from too many people up until the last minute so they didn't have a proper period of stress testing and the sheer volume of users that caused the issues.

[Always Randy]

32. Look the VA is really screwed up too---patience my friends

Obamacare will work fine----our Veterans can't get care from an institution like the VA----so it's only natural that it will take some time-----the ACA is one of the finest gifts ever given to this country----if you are into prayer ---pray for it----if you know haw to help someone get on the website ---do it---we all can make this work----it will make Obama the greatest President we have ever ad ----and the right wingers will come around after it saves lives in their families----some rw are now accepting gay marriage when it's one of their own

[quadrature]

33. who wants their identity stolen?

www.healthcare.gov
...........................
data mining.... -->

unpaid parking ticket from 1999?

didn't file 1040 in 1980?

arrested 45 years ago?

is anyone surprised that Congresscritters
exempted themselves from this?
..............................

on top of that, there are ordinary criminals,
plus hacker countries like China, Russia-Mafia,
and Nigeria-scammers, and insider-Snowdens

[november3rd]

34. The way Thom Hartmann described it on Friday was ...

The Federal system was designed to be a portal that would check everyone's id and eligibility for healthcare, and then it would link them off to their state exchange.

But once the Supreme Court said over the summer that states had the right to reject Medicaid and to not build their own exchanges, the Federal system had to become an exchange for 26 states. It wasn't set up for that.

The exchange websites work fine in the states with their own exchanges, the Federal site just hasn't finished working out how to get people to 26 different exchanges, and then operating those exchanges, too.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

35. No...Sibelius is just an idiot Anyone working in IT would know this was the most important

system ever to get right. If I was Obama I would fire her ass ASAP