NYT: Healthcare.gov Project Chaos Due Partly To Unorthodox Database Choice 334
First time accepted submitter conoviator writes "The NY Times has just published a piece providing more background on the healthcare.gov software project. One interesting aspect: 'Another sore point was the Medicare agency's decision to use database software, from a company called MarkLogic, that managed the data differently from systems by companies like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. CGI officials argued that it would slow work because it was too unfamiliar. Government officials disagreed, and its configuration remains a serious problem.'" The story does not say that MarkLogic's software is bad in itself, only that the choice meant increased complexity on the project.
Re:Stop with the excuses. (Score:2, Informative)
It was designed from the start to pave the way for single payer health care.
Re:Taxes... (Score:5, Informative)
Also the working poor - 47% pay no _income_ tax, but more than half of those people do pay payroll taxes, and even many those who don't (after deductions) still work.
They also pay sales tax, property tax, etc etc.
Re:MarkLogic = NoSQL (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Taxes... (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry to break it to you but that "statistic" is a bunch of BS. Everyone in the US pays taxes of some sort. I'm not particularly high on the tax scale (about $36k a year) and I estimate that i pay at least 30% of my income in local, state, federal and specific taxes (sales, gas, property, vehicle, etc). MAYBE some very poor (or very rich) people can avoid some of those taxes but EVERYONE pays at least a few of them.
Re:follow the money (Score:2, Informative)
And NOBODY understands it! (if you don't believe me, try extracting useful information out of SEC EDGAR). The best I've seen so far just extracts tags using regular expressions.... not actual XML parsing.
Re:follow the money (Score:5, Informative)
I'm guessing they were lowest bid.
Bids? What bids?
There was no bidding.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/01/obama-donors-firm-hired-to-fix-web-mess-it-helped-make/ [nypost.com]
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"WASHINGTON â" A tech firm linked to a campaign-donor crony of President Obama not only got the job to help build the federal health-insurance Web site â" but also is getting paid to fix it.
Anthony Welters, a top campaign bundler for Obama and frequent White House guest, is the executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, which owns the software company now at the center of the ObamaCare Web-site fiasco.
UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Quality Software Services Inc. (QSSI), which built the data hub for the ObamaCare system, has been named the new general contractor in charge of repairing the glitch-plagued HealthCare.gov.
Welters and his wife, Beatrice, have shoveled piles of cash into Obamaâ(TM)s campaign coffers and Âapparently reaped the rewards.
Beatrice Welters bundled donations totaling between $200,000 and $500,000 for Obamaâ(TM)s campaign during the 2008 election Âcycle, according to campaign- Âfinance data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.
SICK CALL: Obama bundler Anthony Weltersâ(TM) firm owns the company picked to repair the health Web site.
The couple then became top donors for Obamaâ(TM)s inauguration festivities, kicking in $100,000 out of their own pockets and bundling another $300,000 from friends and business associates, according to the center.
The investments quickly paid off for Beatrice Welters. The Obama administration tapped her in 2009 for the plum job of US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, which she held through last November.
The couple have been frequent guests at the White House.
Visitors logs show at least a dozen visits between the two by the end of 2012, the most recent information available.
The entire Welters family has gotten into the donation game.
The Welters, along with their sons, Andrew and Bryant, have contributed more than $258,000 to mostly Democratic candidates and committees since 2007.
Whatâ(TM)s more, UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest health-insurance companies in the country and spent millions lobbying for ObamaCare.
The insurance giantâ(TM)s purchase of QSSI in 2012 raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, but the tech firm nevertheless kept the job of building the data hub for the ObamaCare Web site where consumers buy the new mandatory health- Âinsurance plans.
QSSI has been paid an estimated $150 million so far, but officials couldnâ(TM)t say how much more the company might collect on the Ârepair contract.
By all accounts, the data hub has run smoothly while many other components of the Web site have failed.
Meanwhile, tempers flared among Obamaâ(TM)s Democratic allies over the disastrous rollout of the presidentâ(TM)s signature initiative.
âoeIâ(TM)m extraordinarily frustrated,â said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) Âafter top Obama-administration officials gave Senate Democrats a private briefing on the state of the Web-site repairs.
He said they were losing confidence the site could be quickly fixed.
âoeI donâ(TM)t think thereâ(TM)s confidence by anyone in the room. This is more of a show-me moment,â said Merkley."
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This thing was never meant to function in any event. They didn't pay attention to the details because they didn't matter.
It was designed to fail so that the "Holy Grail" of single-payer government-run healthcare could be rolled out as a "fix". As a bonus, they get to hand a big bag of taxpayer's money to their "bag-man".
Just watch. Single-payer will be the "fix" insisted upon.
At least we won't have so many foreigners coming to the US for our excellent health care any more.
Strat