It is now ten days since the Obamacare health exchanges opened across America. In 35 states, the web site was created by the federal government. Basically, the site functions to present and sell a few different types of health insurance. In most states, there are about three companies offering policies and each company offers about four different types of insurance plans. That means that the web site has to be able to present and sell twelve different insurance plans.
To put this in context, the Amazon.com web site offers tens of thousands of different products and it functions fine. The Obamacare site, however, has been unable to function properly since it first went live on the net.
I don't want to forget that the Obamacare site also is supposed to let people know what level of subsidy they can expect to receive from the government as part of the payment for the insurance. That subsidy information, however, has never actually gone live; the system for calculating the subsidies does not yet work.
Now I know that the Obamacare site has to be able to function if hundreds of thousands of folks come to use it each day. So does the Amazon site. Of course, the Amazon site works fine and the Obamacare site has yet to work properly.
Let's look next at what the Obamacare site cost. The original budget was for just under $100 million in development costs. This is an outrageously high number. I have seen some very good websites developed for under $50,000. If one assumes that the cost would have to rise due to the heavy usage, the site could have been developed for a million dollars for certain. The budget was over 80 times that amount. And when the actual cost came in, the federal government paid over $650 million to develop the website. Astounding! America paid about 650 times more for the web site than it shouls have paid. We even paid about eight times more than the budget estimate for site development.
How could the Obama administration pay two thirds of a billion dollars for a site that does not function? It is hard to imagine!
One answer to the huge is cost is the identity of the folks who actually developed the site. Many of those who were brought into the process were more political friends and cronies than web site developers. But two thirds of a billion in wasted cash? Even for Obama's Washington, that's a lot of money.
Let's put it another way: the federal government paid more for a broken web site than it would have paid to have just bought health insurance for a quarter of a million uninsured Americans for a year.
If there was even any doubt about whether Obama's Washington is up to the task of running America's healthcare industry, there can no longer be any question about it. The federal government is totally incompetent. This proves it.
To put this in context, the Amazon.com web site offers tens of thousands of different products and it functions fine. The Obamacare site, however, has been unable to function properly since it first went live on the net.
I don't want to forget that the Obamacare site also is supposed to let people know what level of subsidy they can expect to receive from the government as part of the payment for the insurance. That subsidy information, however, has never actually gone live; the system for calculating the subsidies does not yet work.
Now I know that the Obamacare site has to be able to function if hundreds of thousands of folks come to use it each day. So does the Amazon site. Of course, the Amazon site works fine and the Obamacare site has yet to work properly.
Let's look next at what the Obamacare site cost. The original budget was for just under $100 million in development costs. This is an outrageously high number. I have seen some very good websites developed for under $50,000. If one assumes that the cost would have to rise due to the heavy usage, the site could have been developed for a million dollars for certain. The budget was over 80 times that amount. And when the actual cost came in, the federal government paid over $650 million to develop the website. Astounding! America paid about 650 times more for the web site than it shouls have paid. We even paid about eight times more than the budget estimate for site development.
How could the Obama administration pay two thirds of a billion dollars for a site that does not function? It is hard to imagine!
One answer to the huge is cost is the identity of the folks who actually developed the site. Many of those who were brought into the process were more political friends and cronies than web site developers. But two thirds of a billion in wasted cash? Even for Obama's Washington, that's a lot of money.
Let's put it another way: the federal government paid more for a broken web site than it would have paid to have just bought health insurance for a quarter of a million uninsured Americans for a year.
If there was even any doubt about whether Obama's Washington is up to the task of running America's healthcare industry, there can no longer be any question about it. The federal government is totally incompetent. This proves it.
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