Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Sebelius: 'I apologize, I'm accountable' for Obamacare website flaws
I felt this article was a good follow up to the article Griffin posted about the immediate issues that occures with online healthcare. It goes into more details on the problems associated. Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius takes full responsibility for the issues and apologizes to the American public for everything that has gone wrong.
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I think this isn't a bad article. I like how it discusses that people are apologizing for being unprepared for all the potential disasters that could have happened with the launching of such a big program. However, I think that all of this could have been avoided if Sibelius had just been honest and said the website would not be ready to go by its October 1 launch date. I mean so what if the website wasn't launched on time? It would have been better to be launched a month of two late with only a few problems instead of being launched with a boatload of errors.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see that people in Washington are finally starting to own up to their mistakes. Although the website is experiencing a few bugs, this does not mean the program as a whole is a bad idea. It brings healthcare to many Americans that otherwise would not be able to afford it. I though the article made a good point when it talked about Obama saying that instead of trying to undermine federal law, Republicans should try to come up with solutions to the problem instead. Politicians should focus on fixing the problems instead of trying to decide who to assign the blame to.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Sebelius took responsibility for the problems with the health insurance website. It is clear, after reading the article, that it was known before the website launch that there were potentially a lot of problems because they didn't complete adequate testing. I do understand why Obama made the decision to go forward with the website launch even though there were potential problems. If Obama did decide to push back the launch until he could ensure a fully tested website, he would definitely have gotten scrutinized by the non supporters of the Affordable Care Act.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good follow-up article. It shows that like the general public, government officials are also frustrated. I think it is important for the government to be relatable to the citizens they are supposed to be representing. I agree with Kevin, that these apologies are kind of over-due. Sebelius should have pointed out the problems ahead of time before they were made aware to the public, the government usually has a good excuse for things being behind schedule, so why is this different?
ReplyDeleteI respect Sebelius and Biden for apologizing. It must take a lot to apologize to an entire country, but I really don't think that they deserve the amount of negative press that they are receiving. Yes it is frustrating that the site is still not working but people still have 148 days left to enroll. I think that with any new program there is bound to be problems. Just look at the wifi quirks in the Ipad program at Penncrest.
ReplyDeleteThis is obviously a frustrating issue not only to the people trying to access the website, but also the officials in Washington trying to get it up and running quickly. I agree with Michaela about having to respect Sebelius for taking the blame and apologizing. I like how she admitted she was completely wrong and didn't try to put the blame on someone else. It seems like that's what a lot of people in politics try to do. Whatever the problem is, it should be a good one that is on it's way to being solved in the very near future.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is unfortunate that the website was down, it happens. Many websites crash. The government was shutdown for a wee. A day of a website being down isn't going to do nearly as much damage. I do find it admirable that Biden took responsibility for the technical problems. I also agree with the fact that instead of blaming people, we should try to fix our problems.
ReplyDeleteI really admire the officials who have taken responsibility and apologized for the issues. It's time for all the officials to help fix the problems, not just point fingers.
ReplyDeleteI respect both Sebelius and Biden for apologizing to the Americans who could not yet get healthcare. However, I think that they shouldn't have started up the website when they did. Clearly there are a lot of problems that are surfacing. With a new program it is understandable that there will be some minor issues, but they launched the website too soon and now are paying the price for "jumping the gun".
ReplyDeleteIt's common knowledge that sometimes, technology just isn't reliable. This isn't a good excuse because the website should have been tested more carefully before going live. However, it is admirable that the Democrats are at least apologizing and taking the blame for their mistakes. Hopefully, the flaws will be solved soon.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know much about how all that technology works and if that is a flaw in itself or if something could have been done, so I'm not so sure how to react. However, I think this shows all the complexity that comes with all of the beaurocracies that we have. It was also good to hear from Joe Biden.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that this is a frustrating issue, but technology has flaws. I appreciate Biden and Sebelius for apologizing, but it is not entirely their fault. Also, I agree with Michaela 100% with the Penncrest wifi reference!!!
ReplyDeleteThings don't run perfectly 100% of the time. I can understand why they wanted to rush the website to the October 1st deadline. If they didn't meet the deadline they still would've received backlash. The Democrats are taking accountability for the problems which leads me to believe that these issues will be resolved in the coming weeks.
ReplyDeleteI think that this issue is a very touchy subject but very heart warming in how some politicians have started to take an open blame at their "screw ups" in dealing with some things. I believe that the website had many flaws that should be taken into account on who's at the fault of the terrible job when setting up the new gate way for the uninsured to get their health care.
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