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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObamacare Websites Limited by Verizon Data Hub Failure
By Alex Wayne - Oct 28, 2013
Rollout of the U.S. health-care overhaul is facing mounting delays as a key computer service that failed yesterday remained dormant, three days after the Obama administration said its insurance exchange website would be working smoothly in about a month.
The data services hub that supplies tax information to websites run by the federal government and 14 states to sell medical coverage, was unavailable following a malfunction at the hosting center. The center, operated by Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) unit Terremark, lost connectivity after workers tried to replace a broken networking component, said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
The Obama administration has been under fire since Oct. 1 for persistent problems with computer systems assembled to help people compare and enroll in insurance plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Just three days ago, Jeffrey Zients, the adviser brought in to help fix the flaws, said the data hub, we believe, functions relatively smoothly.
Our engineers have been working with HHS and other technology companies to identify and address the root cause of the issue, Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for New York-based Verizon, said in a phone interview. It will be fixed as quickly as possible.
Nelson declined to say when the breakdown occurred. Peters of HHS also didnt say when the failure happened or how long it would take to repair. Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health secretary, spoke with Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam yesterday, her agency said in a statement.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-28/obamacare-websites-limited-by-verizon-data-hib-failure.html
What an embarrassment and clusterfuck this ACA rollout has been so far. I hope the admin is buying lipstick by the truckload because that is what it is going to take to make this 'pig' look pretty.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Or are you maintaining that the ACA software should just exist in a fourth dimension where it can't be affected by physical failures of servers?
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)by a private corporation?
The outsourcing of government and it's services is the REAL outrage of the ACA rollout.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)communications grid to access the Internet--just for the ACA?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)The private company is supplying the network link between two federal systems.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)If it goes down and stays down for hours, this indicates that their disaster recovery / business continuity plan is inadequate.
A major credit card network, for example, has east coast, west coast, European, and Asian processing hubs that can process for each other in case of emergency.
Your disaster recovery plan must consider the possibility that any single data center or any pair within 200 miles can become permanently inoperable due to, for example, terrorist attack.
Sorry, intended to reply to geektragedy.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)but the administration owns this lock, stock and barrel.
Good thing I've a self-imposed a moratorium on posting negative ACA articles because I could fill the fucking sidebar and these would just be from Democratic sources.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)themselves.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57609593/poll-bad-press-is-increasing-interest-in-obamacare/
A survey released Monday by Bankrate.com shows awareness and interest in the plan is growing among key demographics. The poll found 51 percent of all those surveyed -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- say the House Republican attacks and troubled launch of the Obamacare website have made them more interested in the new medical insurance plan. Only 4 percent say they're less interested.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 17 and 20, immediately after the government shutdown and while media attention was shifting to the many technical problems with the Healthcare.gov website.
Interest in the plan is especially high among younger people who are needed to make the plan's economics work. Nearly 60 percent of so-called "young invincibles" age 18 to 29 said they wanted to know more about the ACA. Because people this age use less healthcare than other groups, their insurance payments help subsidize the healthcare costs of others.
All the media attention also seems to have made up for what has been considered a lackluster effort by the government to make people aware of the ACA. Around 64 percent of the uninsured said they were now curious about it, the highest rate of any group in the survey
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)You are going to need it, indeed.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Indeed, I question the morality of anyone who's rooting for it to fail, whether they be on the Ted Cruz right or the Ted Rall left.
Fortunately, the assclowns rooting against the ACA are our useful idiots.
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)In a year as we review how things are going. And as I call you out I will laugh and laugh. Then I will ask for your stock tips so I can do the opposite and make bank.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)Maybe they should use the hub the NSA uses and let the NSA be down for a while?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)under intense hostile scrutiny.
Fuckups are abslutely bound to happen.
However, in 3 months this will be a bad memory, and in 9 months, not even that as people sign up & realize that they're getting something better than they had before.
The Republicans know this, and know they lose big if they don't kill ACA in the crib.
And yes, I'm a critic of Obamacare. I would much prefer single-payer and the elimination of the insurance companies, but I also recognize that it is somewhat better than what we had before. More people are insured, pre-existing condition exclusions are gone, etc.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)where did that expression come from ? It continues to defeat me despite various description on the web. Did it exist as an expression prior to your own issues over there or was the expression simply invented to suit the purpose ?
Why wasn't it just called "universal health care" same as elsewhere ? I know that here in the UK we just refer to it as NHS but that's historic going back 65 years.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)of universal health care, but in general I think that "single-payer" is a generic term that could include a national health service in which all the providers are government employees, or a system in which the providers remain private but submit their bills to some central paying structure.
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)Disrupting communications and people would be on here saying: "what a clusterfuck Obamacare is! How could they NOT plan for solar disruptions!1!!1"
groundloop
(11,486 posts)We've got threads like this doing it for us.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)or never did ...except for the NSA and military? So the trend is to have corporations run government operations ...how's that working out for ya USA? Well at least this way the blame can go to them and not the gov?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)instead of some other company. The right-wing sites are claiming that the contract was awarded on the basis of political favoritism.