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The Federal Government’s healthcare exchange website launch problems are not just glitches, they are fatal systematic flaws. “These are glitches that go, quite frankly, way beyond the pale of what should be expected,” former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained.

Sharply criticizing his former boss and the Department of Health and Human Services, Gibbs called the rollout of Obamacare “excruciatingly embarrassing” and believes that some officials should be fired over their failure to prevent and correct the system’s problems.

The government’s website Healthcare.gov struggled as soon as it went live on October 1st. Customers saw technical malfunctions including error messages and unloadable or crashed pages. The administration blamed the glitches on the large amount of website traffic creating capacity problems. "Our top issue when it comes to the glitches has been the extraordinary number of people coming to check out plans and find out more about Obamacare," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a news briefing.

However, the continued problems are leading many to believe this is more than a few technical bugs. “The way this I.P. is going is a disaster; I really don’t think people should soft pedal what a bad launch this is. They’ve done a terrible job on this website,” Washington Post contributor Ezra Klein said. “We’re a couple of weeks in and people can’t sign up, people have tried 20, 30, 40 times, I mean it’s one thing for that to be true the first three or four days, it’s another thing for it to be true two or three weeks in.”

"This is not a server problem, like too many people came to the website — this is a website architecture problem," Gibbs said.

These website flaws signal a deeper, more systematic problem with Obamacare. Developing the system reportedly cost more than $400 million and should have been ready for customers on October 1st. The administration and the DHHS was not prepared to rollout the exchange website, but moved forward regardless.

These shortcomings cannot be ignored. “If they don’t get glitches figured out fast, people aren’t going to come back,” said Gibbs.

The failure to launch Healthcare.gov effectively, and to fix the problems more than two weeks into the rollout, is a prime example of why we must continue to work towards changing the healthcare law into something that is better for the American people.


Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsQFddVZmyk

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=healthcarereform&
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/obamacare-glitches_n_4060078.html
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/10/14/ezra-klein-obamacare-roll-out-disaster/