Cielostar Reaction to the President’s “Fix” to the Affordable Care Act
The inevitable occurred today when President Obama issued what he called a “fix” to Obamacare that allows individuals whose health care coverage was canceled to renew their old policy. They have one year to do so. Like most of Obamacare, the devil may be in the details since this fix requires state insurance departments to take appropriate actions to allow those plans to remain in existence through 2014.
The President likened the failed Healthcare.gov launch as a fumble in a big game, but he remains adamant that they will get the ball back and turn this all around. What we found most intriguing were comments made during the question and answer time with reporters. The President said that one of the biggest problems they face is that the federal government’s technology procurement process is outdated and that the first order of business three years ago should have been to change the policies.
If the technology procurement process is outdated, so is the technology. The federal contracting mechanism does not allow for cutting edge, existing technology to be considered because the process is orchestrated by federally-approved general contractors who go back to the same sub-contractors time and again in a closed loop that just gets more and more archaic as time goes by. The result? A 1980s-based technology, that is overly complicated, slow and inefficient. Also known as Healthcare.gov.
While technically there may be no examples of a site quite analogous to Healthcare.gov, there are private exchanges being set up nationwide. Fortunately, private industry isn’t caught in a technology time-warp like the federal government and we can access and utilize the latest technology. We’re not forced to choose contractors who have apparently ignored ten to 20 years of technological advances. If we did, we would be out of business.
So, for the many Americans who believe they can breathe a sigh of relief today because their health care coverage may be reinstated, we are happy. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to regaining confidence in Healthcare.gov and it is our hope that the federal government finds the best and the brightest, talks to leaders in the industry and makes a real “fix” to the technology behind the debacle.