While we discuss the effects of the Obamacare website on our healthcare system, the controversy would better serve us if it brings up larger societal issues.
While there has been extreme focus on the ACA (Obamacare) website in recent weeks, it is incidental to a much larger societal issue: the proliferation and role of technology in our society. The fact is, we live in digital times which are fragile, frail, frustrating, and frankly, disorienting. We have seen this in ongoing media critiques about the Obamacare website. And, it is not going to get, better, it will almost certainly get worse.
Forty-three years ago, Albert Toffler wrote his distinguished book: Future Shock. It purported a dynamic change affecting individuals and societies, summed up by "too much change in too short a period of time.” It was less the direction of change, but the speed, which, left people victims of "shattering stress and disorientation"— or future shocked. And that is the real issue with the ACA website, because our society has bought into that paradigm; and the controversy over that website should give us an opportunity to revisit what is happening to us as well as opening a discussion of possible changes in the way we are handling our speeding technology. The Obamacare website is indeed a metaphor for this phenomena.
First, it is worthwhile to discuss the website itself, and why it is important beyond providing new healthcare solutions. It does not help that there are groups who find traction in using the failings of the website to damage ACA, because the healthcare aspects of the plan are quite different from simply the deficiencies of an internet website. These collateral attacks deflect from the larger discussion, which is dealing with the issues of our new technological paradigm. The reality is all modern connectivity advancements in virtually every field are now going to be digitally-based. When Social Security was presented, it was joined by using snail mail with a $.03 stamp. Slow, but it worked. When Medicare was introduced, there were no “websites” to deliver it – paper was the name of the game. Not so today, or with ACA. Today we demand that we get instant results and perfect performance, through digital technology, regardless of complexity; and anything less is considered failure. But those expectations are not only inaccurate, but creating aggravation if not anger. We simply have not dealt with the reality of our current future shock syndrome. It does not work that way, and likely never will.
If there has been frustration with the Obamacare website, it is only part of what technology has brought us in today’s world. It is a common malady and is here to stay. Recently Wal-Mart, a paragon of retailing, had a glitch in which loads of merchandise was accidentally sold for pennies on the dollar. Microsoft – leader of the world in software development – regularly has severe glitches in its new Windows. This after the biggest name in computer software has tested and vetted each new program endlessly, yet fixes after delivery are the norm. Examples of defective websites is endless, so why are we surprised? It is mindful of the Inspector in Casablanca: "I am shocked, shocked that there is gambling going on in here", and as he leaves, "...don't forget your winnings Inspector." Further, hackers have gone into virtually every kind of website on the internet, and once defeated, they create new mischief. That is the world we live in today, that is reality, that is not uncommon, and that is the Obamacare website.
Moreover, technology has not only created a society of some high speed confusion for us (obviously offset by many benefits), it is racing ahead so that we as individuals will find it hard to assimilate advances, thus resulting in continued change, stress and disconnect. Future shock… but here today.
So, back to the ACA website. It will get fixed (these problems are virtually always solved). It might take a few weeks. But it won’t satisfy or ameliorate the anxiety of those who want instant response and action now! And beyond that, I can guarantee you; there will be problems ahead in this website. Plan on it. It may go down, new problems will be found, security now an issue will be fixed, and then breached again. And so it goes. That’s just the way it is folks. The larger question is not can you get new healthcare now, but can you deal with the foibles and frustrations that modern and racing technology has brought us? And as a corollary, are we going to let this ongoing advance in technology rule us…or are we going to adapt and/or control it? That is the larger lesson of the ACA launch.
Toffler was correct, we have entered a new era of human development (what he called “Post-industrial society”). The issues surrounding the Obamacare website are truly a metaphor for the way we could and should learn to respond to a digital age. That is the greater issue we should be discussing regarding the role of the omnipresent internet in our lives. Is it going to create stress, impatience, and confusion; or will it provide us with tools for convenience and efficiency? This is an opportunity to step back and seek some answers.