It's important to note that the government has a long history of technical failures. From Medicare Part D's miserable launch to relative incompetence in recruiting responsible third-party firms, there is a long-established history of governmental failures in the realm of tech.
I think that it's an extremely important point that the White House and surrogates are making: when the private sector has technical problems, nobody holds them to the same standard. When twitter used to crash on an absolutely constant basis, it was frustrating, but nobody ever said, "Twitter just needs to call it quits because they obviously cannot do anything right and shouldn't be in this sort of business." It's a double-standard of expectations. What's more, private sector glitches rarely deal with something as vital and important as insuring tens of millions of Americans who may or may not be able to receive treatment for their illnesses.
At the end of the day, it's all a matter of perspective. In this day and age, we all expect everything to work perfectly right out of the gate, but that sadly is rarely the case. The conflict-driven narrative that the media is hurling into the national political discourse is ultimately destructive and counter-productive to the actual intent and meaning of this piece of legislation. What's more, healthcare.gov being hailed as a failure is somehow being extrapolated into a larger indictment of the ACA. Granted, healthcare.gov is a huge instrument of the bill's implementation, but other states that have taken meaningful steps to seeing the bill's success (I'm looking at California) are seeing massive success. It's no surprise that states like CA and KY who have their own exchange website are thriving, while states that are being pulled into modernity kicking and screaming are bringing the ship down.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/19199202/obamacare-launch-hits-early-hitch-as-online-traffic-snarls-up-sites/
I think that it's an extremely important point that the White House and surrogates are making: when the private sector has technical problems, nobody holds them to the same standard. When twitter used to crash on an absolutely constant basis, it was frustrating, but nobody ever said, "Twitter just needs to call it quits because they obviously cannot do anything right and shouldn't be in this sort of business." It's a double-standard of expectations. What's more, private sector glitches rarely deal with something as vital and important as insuring tens of millions of Americans who may or may not be able to receive treatment for their illnesses.
At the end of the day, it's all a matter of perspective. In this day and age, we all expect everything to work perfectly right out of the gate, but that sadly is rarely the case. The conflict-driven narrative that the media is hurling into the national political discourse is ultimately destructive and counter-productive to the actual intent and meaning of this piece of legislation. What's more, healthcare.gov being hailed as a failure is somehow being extrapolated into a larger indictment of the ACA. Granted, healthcare.gov is a huge instrument of the bill's implementation, but other states that have taken meaningful steps to seeing the bill's success (I'm looking at California) are seeing massive success. It's no surprise that states like CA and KY who have their own exchange website are thriving, while states that are being pulled into modernity kicking and screaming are bringing the ship down.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/19199202/obamacare-launch-hits-early-hitch-as-online-traffic-snarls-up-sites/
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