Followup:  Obamacare Website

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2013.

Additional information has come to light on this subject.  Sean Hannity, on his Fox News Channel program, had the young woman on TV that he had talked to at Obamacare on Hannity's radio program.  She has been fired.  

Apparently her superiors didn't like the way she conducted the discussion with Hannity.  But she had not been given instructions on how to handle a radio talk show host.  

The U.S. House of Representatives has a House Energy & Commerce Committee that conducted questioning of some contractors involved in the Obamacare website.  It was on C-SPAN, Thursday, 10/24/13.  

Cheryl Campbell was the spokesperson for CGI Federal, one of the software contractors for the Obamacare website.  Mr. Leavitt was the spokesperson for QSSI, another of the contractors.  

Evidently, there are another six contractors involved.  And, of course, it is necessary that the software from all of the contractors work properly with the software of the other contractors.   

According to the testimony of Campbell, her outfit tested their own software, which seemed to be working properly.  But they were not responsible for "end-to-end testing" of the whole system, that is, all of the software put together.  

There doesn't seem to be anyone responsible for testing the whole system put together, and not more than two weeks was allowed for that testing.  But shouldn't Kathryn Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services have been overseeing this matter? 

If not Sibelius, then who at the Federal Government was responsible for coordinating the activities of the eight or so contractors to provide the software, who each felt that they were only responsible for their own little corner, but not responsible for the overall project?

On a project this size, two months of testing would have been more appropriate than two weeks.    

Campbell was asked for certain information by Congressmen.  She said she would provide the info if she could obtain permission from CMS, another contractor with whom CGI Federal had a contractual relationship.  

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the Obamacare website, and three years have been spent on the project.  We don't seem to have much to show for our investment.  

The House of Representatives is trying to find out what happened.  

It looks like someone ought to be fired for this fiasco, and perhaps criminal charges should be filed.  

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been told that their current health care insurance will be canceled because those insurers don't qualify with the requirements of Obamacare.  

Employers have been afraid to hire because of the uncertainty of the health care requirements.  Or, some have hired part-time employees rather than full-time.  

If the administration is having this much trouble just getting the website to work, how are they going to properly administer the actual health care?