"Obamacare sites cost more than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn"

[grahamhgreen]

Last edited Tue Oct 22, 2013, 03:35 PM - Edit history (1)

OK, I think investigations and maybe some prosecutions are in order.

500+ million - follow the money.

“Given the complicated nature of federal contracts, it’s difficult to make a direct comparison between the cost to develop Healthcare.gov and the amount of money spent building private online businesses. But for the sake of putting the monstrous amount of money into perspective, here are a few figures to chew on: Facebook, which received its first investment in June 2004, operated for a full six years before surpassing the $500 million mark in June 2010. Twitter, created in 2006, managed to get by with only $360.17 million in total funding until a $400 million boost in 2011. Instagram ginned up justt $57.5 million in funding before Facebook bought it for (a staggering) $1 billion last year. And LinkedIn and Spotify, meanwhile, have only raised, respectively, $200 million and $288 million.

http://rt.com/usa/obamacare-websites-cost-millions-002/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/obamacare-healthcare-gov-website-cost/”

[JoePhilly]

1. So we want the ACA to work like Facebook? Sure, cause that's secure!!

[FarCenter]

6. healthcare.gov links into several systems like IRS, which contain personal information

There has been some speculation about the security risks of healthcare.gov and especially about the screening of "navigators" who are trained to assist applicants.

[JoePhilly]

19. Which is another great example of why comparing healthcare.gov to Facebook and Twitter

is a rather meaningless thing to do.

The complexity of setting up healthcare.gov includes ...

... connecting it to all of the pre-exiting government databases, and ...

... connecting it to a fluctuating number of disparate state run exchanges, and ...

... connecting it to the wide array of insurance providers ... is well ...

SLIGHTLY more complex.

As for the screening of the "navigators" ... I wonder if they'll get more screening than the bank tellers and wait staff in restaurants.

[cbdo2007]

2. LOL, this is one of the most absurd comparisons I've ever seen.

Do they understand how intrinsically basic Twitter is??

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. Seriously?

Do you have any background in large scale Web platforms?

If not...I would just allow those that do to make this kind of comparison (which they will tell you it is not a valid comparison).

Web solutions are not like a Television or Computer. You cannot just compare the Sanyo to the RCA....in this case.

[Trekologer]

5. It is not a valid comparison

The examples given were all built iteratively over the spam of many years. And all experienced at least one total crash and burn.

[VanillaRhapsody]

8. agreed!

[grahamhgreen]

13. No, but I have seen a lot of govt boondoggles in my life and this sure seems like we need to follow

the money and see what they did with it.

There are a lot of people who want Obamacare to fail, and they may just be devious enough to screw up the website.

[yourout]

4. From a technical standpoint Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are a walk in the park due...

to not having to interface with 50 different states with 50 different systems.

Getting all these systems that were not written by the same vendors to play nice is the main problem.

[VanillaRhapsody]

9. You are right...and it has been said to be one of the most complex Apps ever built...

[JoePhilly]

20. Plus all of the government DBs and all of the disparate insurance provider

infrastructure.

[snooper2]

7. I wonder how many people here are clueless to what an API is

86%?

[VanillaRhapsody]

10. I am guessing higher than that a bit...

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. The RT writers do not understand that some

of those databases that the government is running are in ancient computer language nobody really teaches anymore. Oh and they live in legacy gear too. You try to do that with twitter, linkedin and facebook. I promise same issues.

[grahamhgreen]

14. Really? Half a billion and it doesn't work seems plausible?

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yup, some of it is in COBOL

So you are trying to marry modern and ancient systems, and it was not beta tested enough.

Wonders you learn from listening to an actual computer expert on NPR. Yesterday they spent 10 minutes on the woes of design and the intrinsic problems

So between ancient databases that are not in modern computer language, and lack of testing, none should be too shocked.

Add to the soup the procurement systems that lead to not necessarily the most qualified in actual coding, but the most qualified to navigate the system.

Yup, Amazon would be having issues too.

[Egnever]

12. I think maybe some self education is in order

These systems aren't even remotely comparable.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

16. are you kidding me? Does Facebook have as its primary aim connecting with multiple other agencies

to verify who a person is and then funnel that person to the correct series of pricing and insurance choices?

What you are describing is laughable as a comparison.

Besides, most of those companies started small and used the network effects of online communities to build capital and expand--unlike this one that must be ready to serve millions right out of the gate.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

17. your flawed premise has been successfully batted down

don't you agree? P.S. you were one of the folks braying about how it was THE LEFT who should be congratulated for Obama not delivering air strikes to Syria--not Obama himself. Is this more of your "holding his feet to the fire"? Just curious.

[grahamhgreen]

22. OK, I'm gonna trust you guys on this....:)

[renie408]

18. I am thinking more along the lines that maybe somebody along the way should have said...

"Oh, by the way, this thing might have some serious issues for the first 3-4 weeks of the rollout, so maybe we should get people used to that idea upfront."

I think there were some issues with communicating problems up the chain of command or whatever. I have read articles where reporters said that they were hearing bits and pieces about problems; but when they asked about them, they were told everything was just fine. We should have been given a head's up about the possible issues and that might have mitigated people's expectations somewhat.

I would also like to know how long it took those sites to get the number of hits that this website has.

[CreekDog]

21. delivering health insurance and the subsidies that go with it isn't social networking

it is vastly more complex than allowing everyone to tweet each other.

how simplistic are you?