This week I visited the federal health insurance marketplace web site, the State of Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles site and the site of the private, national health club chain where I have a membership. I had problems with all three. The fewest problems were with the health insurance marketplace.
When I tried to renew my license plate on the state government motor vehicle site, I ran into an obscure error message that wouldn't let me proceed, an error that was repeatable even though I've used the site successfully in past years. I finally switched to my laptop and, using a non-standard web browser, got the online application process to work properly. But it took a lot longer than it should have.
The health-club chain site let me log in all right, but listed for me a completely different membership rate and service plan than was listed in the chain's printed letter that came via US Mail. I could not get the site to list the existing service plan I was trying to renew, and finally had to call an 800 number and talk to a real person instead.
I could go on and on, but I think many readers will recognize a pattern here because they've been through it themselves, and often. The Internet works, except when it doesn't. With financially oriented sites that need to crunch lots of data in a secure way, you're more likely to encounter glitches than if, say, you're watching cat videos on YouTube. That's just reality.
And that's why the hype-storm over the flawed federal online health care marketplace is simply laughable. Not because there aren't problems with the government web site -- I'm among those who have run into a few of them while looking at the dozens of price-attractive options to replace a current insurance policy. But people who do a lot of business -- especially financial business -- on the web know that while annoying this is normal, especially in the case of start-ups but also with long-established sites. Read on below the orange cloud, if your computer is still working.
With respect to the insurance marketplace, the anti-"Obamacare" hype from Republicans and some of their enablers in the news media (I'm lately looking at you, CBS News) completely ignores a few basic realities:
1. All new web sites, and some long-functioning ones, have glitches. That's true whether they're developed and run by private enterprises or government. Some glitches are small, some are big. Regardless, all of them not only have problems after they go live, all of them constantly tweak their sites as usage and functions change and unexpected problems arise. This is the web-development art as it exists.
2. Indeed, the Medicare Part D prescription enrollment web site was a prime example. Consider this headline from 2005: "Medicare's Part D Website: Capacity Problems and Failure." A sub-head from that online article: "No, Really, It's Broken." Of course, that humongous Medicare web site was created to serve a gigantic government social program created (though largely not funded) by President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans, so, hey, no problemo! Eventually, the bugs did get worked out. Short-term complaints, yes, but no political, media-fed hype-storm eight years ago.
3. Some web site glitches are due to the computers and operating systems that visitors sometimes use. For example, if you're on a financial web site with SSL encryption to maintain privacy (you'll know that by a message from the provider or by looking at the URL and noting it begins with https instead of the usual http), you might not be able to conduct a transaction if your browser's security screens are set too high or improperly. That's your problem, not the site's.
4. The insurance marketplace site's development was delayed months and even years by legislative and court fights over "Obamacare" including Republican moves to deny funding for the site's development. What could possibly go wrong with not properly funding the site's development while vastly shortening the time in which it could be developed?
Hilariously, Republicans now hyper-critical of the insurance marketplace web problems have had to tacitly admit that the sources of problems include the absolutely huge number of Americans interested in using the site to shop for more affordable insurance.
When hundreds or thousands of customers bang down the doors at Large Mart on Black Friday or swamp the aisles when a new Gristly Gleam donut shop opens, that's the mark of consumer demand -- and up until now Republicans have been telling us people don't want "Obamacare."
Furthermore, Republicans have now tried to create controversy by suggesting that the federal insurance marketplace site collects personal data and shares it with all sorts of government agencies and private insurers. But think it through. Your current insurer and the government already HAVE all of that data. That's obvious, because Congress mandated that the marketplace verify income to qualify applicants for health insurance tax credits. Can you do that without actually having the right institutions cross-check reported income data? Quite a magic trick!
But could the marketplace potentially have allowed confidential personal information to leak out to criminals or others who might misuse it? Apparently yes, according to reports, and that's a problem. Just like it was a problem when the super-secret National Security Agency let its online databases open to leaks, and when large company after large company have allowed customer financial data to be liberated by Internet thieves.
It's a jungle out there, but if you think "Obamacare" is the sole example of this, you're probably already the victim of identity theft from another, most likely private, web site.
By the way, in the case of my visit to the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles web site, I was presented with a disclaimer early on: The site informed me that, "You will be forwarded to U.S. Bank for the collection of your credit or debit card data so that your payment can be processed. This data is classified as private and U.S. Bank will only use this data for the purpose of renewing your license plates."
Well, okay, I'm not a U.S. Bank customer but I guess that seems reasonable. Then again, should I trust the State of Wisconsin and its web site programmers, whomever they are? Based on GOP reaction to potential (but not as yet reported as actual) problems with security on the federal health insurance martketplace site, maybe I instead should have stood in line for an hour or so to get my license plate sticker in person.
And let's not dwell on the irony that Scott Walker, Wisconsin's conservative GOP governor, chose not to set up a state health insurance marketplace even while he was moving to dump tens of thousands of residents off the Medicaid rolls, then directing them to go to the federal marketplace site. Their arrival at www.healthcare.gov was no doubt unanticipated by policymakers and planners who thought state control over these exchanges would be efficient, sensible and a no-brainer. Sorry, guys, you're dealing with one of the champion GOP hype-stormers.
All that said, healthcare.gov has begun working for me and my family, after a few false starts and go-arounds. Judging by the experience of the Medicare Part D site, the most serious problems with healthcare.gov will be resolved in weeks, and then people will be able to apply without bumps along the way.
Of course, if a sufficient number of our national lawmakers had shown the foresight and wisdom (I know, I know!) to enact a single-payer system, the complexity of healthcare.gov would have been reduced greatly and people wouldn't have to wade through dozens or hundreds of competing, price-competitive, private health plans. Moreover, not that long ago, this task would have been considered a feature, rather than a defect.