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Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#31

Post by Iftheshoefits »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #28
Iftheshoefits wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rather think that depends on what technological expertise the the start-up brought to bear on the problem. I understand it's chic to think that Healtcare.gov is "just another website", especially among a certain crowd who think that all development is web development, and best done on a MacbookPro using RoR/node/ /Go + . It's a mistaken impression, though, because we aren't talking about some from-scratch system. W…

> Honestly I don't think there is any contractor who could have pulled this project off flawlessly A few flaws could be excused but the site was a disaster. > or even very much better than the group of misfits who did Healthcare.gov In just a couple of months, the current contractor group was able to clean up most of the mess and improve the site dramatically. In just two months ! Imagine what they could have pulled…

The were able to clean up and improve an existing system, yes. That doesn't imply anything about their abilities to have created it from the ground up.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#32

Post by ollysb »

greg5green wrote: post #5

>>Accenture, which is one of the world’s largest consulting firms, has extensive experience with computer systems on the state level, and it built California’s new health insurance exchange. Hasn't California's exchange had big problems too?

I've always been under the impression that accenture were a "bums on seats" consultancy, graduates cranking out low quality java code.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#33

Post by lifeisstillgood »

cstejerean wrote: post #23
coherentpony wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And if it failed Fixed that for you.

Oh, this project would have failed anyway. A lot of the work is integration with backwards systems, in a political environment. Point me at the startup engineers that are interested in working on that. Sure, a mythical online website built from scratch in Node.js with a Mongo backend can be out together by a bunch of college graduates, but without talking to a dozen other systems this site is not going to do much, an…

I think thats unfair.

Interaction with legacy systems is all the future has left, plus its a problem - and the most elegant hack to scrape the aging DoJ mainframe wins the prize.

No, its clear public data architecture has to change.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#34

Post by jasonkolb »

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #16
coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

I rather think that depends on what technological expertise the the start-up brought to bear on the problem. I understand it's chic to think that Healtcare.gov is "just another website", especially among a certain crowd who think that all development is web development, and best done on a MacbookPro using RoR/node/ /Go + . It's a mistaken impression, though, because we aren't talking about some from-scratch system. W…

Have you actually used the site? I tried to register, it's a complete joke. It crashed twice and eventually I got to a point where I literally could not figure out what I was supposed to do next. I mean, I'm a programmer and I couldn't figure it out. Everyone else I talked to who tried to use it had the same experience.

The site literally does not function, this has nothing to do with integrations.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#35

Post by res0nat0r »

coherentpony wrote: post #18
erbo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you take that contract? I sure wouldn't. Something this big, and this failure prone, and which is being used as a political football besides...no amount of money is worth that.

This shouldn't even be about politics. Amazon serves millions of people a day and their site works perfectly (even if it is horribly designed) every time I've tried to use it. Healthcare.gov is used once by everyone (that needs coverage) to pick a plan and pay for it. People are fucking dying because they can't get coverage.

Amazon.com came online 20 years ago and has been slowly iterated upon and changed by thousands of employees since then. Slightly different.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#37

Post by JanezStupar »

angersock wrote: post #15
erbo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you take that contract? I sure wouldn't. Something this big, and this failure prone, and which is being used as a political football besides...no amount of money is worth that.

I'd be willing to try for 20M. Worth a shot.

I have worked on government IT projects in a country that has 160 times less citizens and I would not take this kind of project for this kind of money.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#38

Post by rayiner »

stcredzero wrote: post #29
rayiner wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And don't think for a second that this is unintentional. Okay, what if I do?

It was probably intended as something else, but it has probably become a way for discouraging competition through mechanisms like regulatory capture.

It's not really enough to just handwave the word "regulatory capture." What's your evidence that the acquisitions process has been captured.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#40

Post by angersock »

JanezStupar wrote: post #37
angersock wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be willing to try for 20M. Worth a shot.

I have worked on government IT projects in a country that has 160 times less citizens and I would not take this kind of project for this kind of money.

That's because you're missing the point:

The damned thing doesn't have to work, it just has to make the administration look good. The White House gets to look forward-thinking in rolling out this amazing new technology to help fix healthcare, and they get to look good by being the underdog victim fighting against the bloated government contractor that tried to defraud the taxpayer.

All you have to do is take the money, play the patsy, and everything will be fine.

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