Wonkbook: Is Obamacare turning the corner? Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/26/wonkbook-is-obamacare-turning-the-corner/

A spin through HealthCare.Gov this morning went smoothly. The site loaded quickly. The process progressed easily. There were no error messages or endless hangs. I didn't complete the final step of purchasing insurance but, until then, the site worked -- or at least appeared to work -- exactly as intended.

My experience isn't rare. There are increasing reports that HealthCare.Gov is working better -- perhaps much better -- for consumers than it was a few short weeks ago. "Consumer advocates say it is becoming easier for people to sign up for coverage," report Sandhya Somashekhar and Amy Goldstein in the Washington Post. "The truth is, the system is getting stronger as it recovers from its disastrous launch," writes Sam Baker in the National Journal. Applying "was no problem at all, with no delays," says Paul Krugman.

Reports from inside the health care bureaucracy are also turning towards optimism. People who knew the Web site was going to be a mess on Oct. 1st are, for the first time, beginning to think HealthCare.Gov might work. Data backs them up: By mid-November, the pace of enrollment in the federal exchanges had doubled from what it was in October.

The Obama administration is certainly acting like they believe the site has turned the corner. Somashekhar and Goldstein report that they're "moving on to the outreach phase, which had taken a back seat as they grappled with the faulty Web site. Next week, the White House will host an insurance-oriented 'youth summit' aimed at people ages 18 to 35, an age group whose participation in the health-care law will be critical to its success."
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[busterbrown]

1. Its too late. The Damage has been done.. Fed has lost all credibility in handling such affairs..

Right wing talking points by Buster(freaking) Brown..

[Bill USA]

3. don't forget to credit Charlie Rose 4 enthusiastically parroting GOP propaganda. He does it so well!

[busterbrown]

4. Freaking idiots...Everyone of them..

I mean really. Are they that stupid?or is their producer pushing these on air assessments?

[WCGreen]

6. It's just theater to these millionaire "Journalists"...

They can't really fathom what the big deal is...

[vinny9698]

8. Public opinion turns very quickly

Look at how the GOP attack FEMA, yet when they have a disaster in their area, the first one to yell for FEMA help.
As more people sign up, it will become like Benghazi, a made up scandal so says Krugman.

[TheDonkey]

2. Good news. Ezra Klein has been an insufferable hater regarding the website

Which I found funny considering his blog does not load correctly on my iPad (using chrome) so I found it funny he had the nerve to complain about IT inefficiencies....

[quadrature]

5. the website is fixable..."you can keep your policy", not so much....nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. This reminds me of a case study ...

I studied in a Marketing course ... regarding the launch of the, now, popular household deodorizer, Febreeze.

Its launch failed … miserably … because of a poor marketing strategy and a faulty product design (people are used to the odors around them. Febreeze was

originally odorless, so removing the odor that people were used to was not enough … people wanted to smell something after cleaning, not smell nothing).

So P&G re-tooled the marketing strategy and added a perfume and re-launched. The re-launch was so effective (per the industry and academics) largely BECAUSE the initial launch failed so miserably and so publicly.

Turns out … and the research supports … that people prefer new concept products to start off rocky, then show dramatic improvement; something akin to buying the second model year of a new vehicle … people are comfortable making the purchase because “they worked out all the bugs.”

[Skittles]

9. no, no, no, IT'S WORSE THAN KATRINA, Bill USA!!!!

GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!

[nikto]

10. GOP and Conservative attack-sites and various GOP software-attacks are falling behind

I am certain, that whatever innate software problems the site may have had,
there have ALSO been numerous GOP/Conservative hacker-type attacks on the website,
just like there was GOP computer-hacking in the 2000/2004 elections.

But little-by-little, the attacks are being outstripped by software updates and new protections,
and the site is starting to function as planned.

There can be little doubt about this, despite the issue not being covered by media.

Don't even try to tell me GOP/rightwing operatives have not gone this route and done these things.

But those attacks are failing now.

And typical software problems that occur on a complex project like this have been largely repaired.

But GOP hacking did occur to a significant degree, for sure.
cui bono?