This is about my first experiences with the Affordable Care Act.
Shortly after the Healthcare.gov website went live, I completed my application. As I was about to press the "SUBMIT" button, an error message popped up. It said they were having a problem with the "verification system" and they expected to fix the problem with 24 hours.
Ok. I understand websites have issues.
I went on with my week and headed up to northern Ohio to visit my parents for the weekend. While chatting with my mom, I overheard my dad laughing in the sunroom. We both assumed he had started watching the newest episode of the Big Bang Theory without us. We were definitely surprised to see that it was actually C-SPAN.
For a good 20 minutes we watched BOTH Democratic and Republican representatives badger, criticize, and embarrass the firms that were responsible for creating and launching the healthcare.gov website. My favorite quote (from a Democrat) went something like this: "Amazon and eBay don’t crash the week before Christmas." Their defense was, “The individual parts of the site worked as planned but we didn’t have a full kind of integrated, end-to-end system testing until a couple of days leading up to the launch.”
So basically... they weren't prepared when they launched. Which is why it has been over a month and I STILL can't even submit my application.
I thought maybe it was me who was doing something wrong, so I decided to use the "Live Chat" button to get some answers. Here's our conversation:
ME: I received an email saying I have a message waiting, but there is no inbox or place to read it in my account.
HER: There is a glitch in the site that doesn't allow you to see your inbox.
ME: Oh, ok. I think the message is regarding the fact that the site won't allow me to submit my application. I've tried 5 times over the past 5 days and it just keeps saying the verification problem will be resolved in 24 hours... is there something I'm doing wrong?
HER: It's like that for almost everyone unfortunately.
ME: Oh. So do you think it will be fixed in 24 hours?
Her: Probably not. We have no idea when it will be fixed.
Mmmk. Guess I now understand all the jokes on SNL, Jay Leno and even the Country Music Awards.
A week later, I decided to bypass the website and just call the hotline. Phones still work... right? After wasting 30+ minutes of my life (mostly on hold while the guy had to ask his supervisor all my questions)... the conclusion was that I could give them all of my information, but they couldn't guarantee it would work because they basically just type it into the same website that I'm using, and they were currently have web issues as well. I declined and said I would wait until the website was functioning. My pregnancy hormones were NOT in the mood for wasting more time, just to end up the same place I was before.
Approximately, another week later... I got a text message from my husband who said he heard on the radio that the government announced most of the problems were resolved! The website had been fixed! {insert sigh of relief} FINALLY. I probably wouldn't care so much, except for the fact that it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine to have items on my "To-Do" list that are 99.9% done... but not checked off.
So, I once again re-entered all our information (FYI, when you click "save" it only saves half your application and you basically have to re-apply all over again. I'm a pro since this is my 12th time applying. And bonus! I finally memorized my husband's social security number.)
Anyway... after navigating half way through the application, I got a completely new and different error message.
"Sorry, our system is temporarily down. There's a problem. Log out and try logging in again after 30 minutes."
{Insert variety of expletives}
Seriously. If you want to know how to escalate a relatively calm, patient, pregnant lady to bat-shi-crazy-profanity-spewing-violent-things-flying-across-the-room-angry... make her apply for Obamacare 12+ times and keep telling her the website will be fixed, and talk about how thousands of people are saving hundreds of dollars through Obamacare... and then give her the same error message that appears EVERY SINGLE time, and then for the grand finale, completely cut off her session before she even gets half-way through. Yeah, that'll do it.
Ay-Ay-Ay!!!
I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, or Mother Theresa. THIS SITUATION IS NOT OKAY. It is 2013, not 1999. We know how to make websites that require people to fill in boxes and drop-down menus. It's not that complicated. We also know how to collect data from large groups of people. THIS IS NOT NEW. This is also not HomemadeHairBowsforBabies.com that went viral much quicker than expected. This is THE healthcare website, created by THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, that was advertised WAY too many times on TV encouraging EVERYONE to visit and sign up.
WHY WERE YOU NOT PREPARED? HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN?!?! And most of all... how has it been OVER A MONTH and the problems and errors are EXACTLY THE SAME?!?!?!
I could continue to rant. But I'm trying to keep my stress levels in a healthy range.
And we haven't even gotten to the part where it tells me how much I'll be paying...
Shortly after the Healthcare.gov website went live, I completed my application. As I was about to press the "SUBMIT" button, an error message popped up. It said they were having a problem with the "verification system" and they expected to fix the problem with 24 hours.
Ok. I understand websites have issues.
I went on with my week and headed up to northern Ohio to visit my parents for the weekend. While chatting with my mom, I overheard my dad laughing in the sunroom. We both assumed he had started watching the newest episode of the Big Bang Theory without us. We were definitely surprised to see that it was actually C-SPAN.
For a good 20 minutes we watched BOTH Democratic and Republican representatives badger, criticize, and embarrass the firms that were responsible for creating and launching the healthcare.gov website. My favorite quote (from a Democrat) went something like this: "Amazon and eBay don’t crash the week before Christmas." Their defense was, “The individual parts of the site worked as planned but we didn’t have a full kind of integrated, end-to-end system testing until a couple of days leading up to the launch.”
So basically... they weren't prepared when they launched. Which is why it has been over a month and I STILL can't even submit my application.
I thought maybe it was me who was doing something wrong, so I decided to use the "Live Chat" button to get some answers. Here's our conversation:
ME: I received an email saying I have a message waiting, but there is no inbox or place to read it in my account.
HER: There is a glitch in the site that doesn't allow you to see your inbox.
ME: Oh, ok. I think the message is regarding the fact that the site won't allow me to submit my application. I've tried 5 times over the past 5 days and it just keeps saying the verification problem will be resolved in 24 hours... is there something I'm doing wrong?
HER: It's like that for almost everyone unfortunately.
ME: Oh. So do you think it will be fixed in 24 hours?
Her: Probably not. We have no idea when it will be fixed.
Mmmk. Guess I now understand all the jokes on SNL, Jay Leno and even the Country Music Awards.
A week later, I decided to bypass the website and just call the hotline. Phones still work... right? After wasting 30+ minutes of my life (mostly on hold while the guy had to ask his supervisor all my questions)... the conclusion was that I could give them all of my information, but they couldn't guarantee it would work because they basically just type it into the same website that I'm using, and they were currently have web issues as well. I declined and said I would wait until the website was functioning. My pregnancy hormones were NOT in the mood for wasting more time, just to end up the same place I was before.
Approximately, another week later... I got a text message from my husband who said he heard on the radio that the government announced most of the problems were resolved! The website had been fixed! {insert sigh of relief} FINALLY. I probably wouldn't care so much, except for the fact that it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine to have items on my "To-Do" list that are 99.9% done... but not checked off.
So, I once again re-entered all our information (FYI, when you click "save" it only saves half your application and you basically have to re-apply all over again. I'm a pro since this is my 12th time applying. And bonus! I finally memorized my husband's social security number.)
Anyway... after navigating half way through the application, I got a completely new and different error message.
"Sorry, our system is temporarily down. There's a problem. Log out and try logging in again after 30 minutes."
{Insert variety of expletives}
Seriously. If you want to know how to escalate a relatively calm, patient, pregnant lady to bat-shi-crazy-profanity-spewing-violent-things-flying-across-the-room-angry... make her apply for Obamacare 12+ times and keep telling her the website will be fixed, and talk about how thousands of people are saving hundreds of dollars through Obamacare... and then give her the same error message that appears EVERY SINGLE time, and then for the grand finale, completely cut off her session before she even gets half-way through. Yeah, that'll do it.
Ay-Ay-Ay!!!
I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, or Mother Theresa. THIS SITUATION IS NOT OKAY. It is 2013, not 1999. We know how to make websites that require people to fill in boxes and drop-down menus. It's not that complicated. We also know how to collect data from large groups of people. THIS IS NOT NEW. This is also not HomemadeHairBowsforBabies.com that went viral much quicker than expected. This is THE healthcare website, created by THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, that was advertised WAY too many times on TV encouraging EVERYONE to visit and sign up.
WHY WERE YOU NOT PREPARED? HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN?!?! And most of all... how has it been OVER A MONTH and the problems and errors are EXACTLY THE SAME?!?!?!
I could continue to rant. But I'm trying to keep my stress levels in a healthy range.
And we haven't even gotten to the part where it tells me how much I'll be paying...
I've given up after six attempts and having the same experience you dd.
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