Translation: it has not been fixed by the November 30 deadline espoused by Obama, but hey, what is one more lie added to the list regarding his signature achievement?
"Behind the health care rescue effort; Crisis exposed array of tensions among players" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D. Shear | New York Times, December 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — As a small coterie of grim-faced advisers shuffled into the Oval Office on the evening of Oct. 15, President Obama’s chief domestic accomplishment was falling apart 24 miles away, at a bustling high-tech data center in suburban Virginia.
HealthCare.gov, the $630 million online insurance marketplace, was a disaster after it went live on Oct. 1, with a roster of engineering repairs that would eventually swell to more than 600 items. The private contractors who built it were pointing fingers at one another.
Related: Done With Deloitte
They get paid to fix their mistakes, huh?
Seems like a bit of a conflict of intere$t, no?
And inside the White House, after initially saying too much traffic was to blame, Obama’s closest confidants had few good answers.
Translation: you were lied to, again -- for your own good, of course.
The political dangers were clear to everyone in the room: Vice President Joe Biden; Kathleen Sebelius, the health secretary; Marilyn Tavenner, the Medicare chief; Denis McDonough, the chief of staff; Todd Park, the chief technology officer; and others.
Oh, this is all about s***-show fooley politics!
For 90 excruciating minutes, a furious and frustrated president peppered his team with questions as he struggled to understand the scope of a crisis that suddenly threatened his presidency.
Pffft!
If that's the narrative you want to believe. Looks more like a White House public relations handout to me. I suppose Stolberg and Shear want to preserve their exclusive access.
“We created this problem we didn’t need to create,” Obama said, according to one adviser who, like several interviewed, insisted on anonymity to share details of the private session.
OMG, a word of truth of his lips!
***********************
Out of that tense Oval Office meeting grew a frantic effort aimed at rescuing not only the insurance portal and Obama’s credibility, but also the Democratic philosophy that an activist government can solve big, complex social problems. Today, that rescue effort is far from complete.
I was told.... sigh (see related article below).
As for rescuing that philosophy, maybe it was true once in this country but the Congre$$ and executive have gone so far down the road of corporate governance that is no longer a viable option. Governments now bring wars and steal hard-earned wages to pass out as corporate welfare and to fund lavish political lifestyles. That was never the framers intent, in fact they warned about the monied intere$ts before they died.
Anyhow, all this pre$$ and these articles are NOTHING MORE than SALVAGING DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL PROSPECTS for next years elections!
The website, which the administration promised would “function smoothly” for most people by Nov. 30, remains a work in progress. It is more stable, with many more people able to use it simultaneously than just two weeks ago. But it still suffers sporadic crashes.
Meaning it is NOT FIXED like they said it would be!
The president, who polls showed was now viewed by a majority of Americans as not trustworthy, has conceded that he needs to “win back” his credibility.
No, you never do that -- especially when you had already lost it long before the website debacle.
I hate to be the one to tell you, sir, but it's over. The love affair with the American people, the Hollywood-conjured honeymoon, it's done. You are in year 5 of a failed two term presidency. Get used to it.
The race to fix the website has exposed a deeply dysfunctional relationship between the Department of Health and Human Services and its technology contractors, and tensions between the White House chief of staff and senior health department officials.
It strained relations between the Obama administration and the insurance industry, helped revive a Republican Party battered after the two-week government shutdown and frustrated, even infuriated, congressional Democrats.
I would be worried about that first intereSt if I were him.
The early reports were encouraging as HealthCare.gov opened for business on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Said who? I mean, that really made me laugh so hard I need to seek medical treatment. Too bad I have no health insurance because I couldn't sign up on the website due to technical problems.
************************
But in Herndon, Va., at the offices of CGI Federal, the American subsidiary of a Montreal information technology firm that built the bulk of the site, technicians were frantic. They were beginning to realize what the White House did not: that the exchange’s problems involved much more than delays caused by high traffic.
Errors were popping up everywhere. Software that assigned identities to enrollees and ensured that they saw only their own personal data, known internally as the EIdM, was being quickly overwhelmed. Customers could not log in to create accounts.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were consumed with another problem: the looming threat of a government default. The House Democratic Caucus gathered in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 9; Obama, participants said, vowed to hold the line with Republicans on the debt fight and assured nervous Democrats that his team would get the health portal working.
That same day, McDonough met in his office with Jeffrey D. Zients, a multimillionaire management consultant who had developed a reputation as a troubleshooter while running the Office of Management and Budget and is scheduled to become Obama’s top economic adviser in January.
Yes, the 1% will save us all. Makes you wonder why the world is such a s*** hole after decades of their reign?
Chaos and frustration among the engineers was growing as fast in mid-October as the list of problems they were supposed to be fixing. Across the country, insurance executives were alarmed. Almost no one was buying their products.
Oh heavens!
In Herndon, as engineers tried to come to grips with repeated crashes, a host of problems were becoming apparent: inadequate capacity in its data center and sloppy computer code, partly the result of rushed work amid the rapidly changing specifications issued by the government.
Rushed and sloppy work on such a far-reaching and important project?
The website had barely been tested before it went live, so a large number of software and hardware defects had not been uncovered. Fixing the account creation software simply exposed other problems.
Because, as I have said this whole time, it is a CASH GRAB so they can show bond-buyers a pool of money from a bankrupt government.
Zients decided the site needed a “systems integrator,” a single company that would take charge. On Oct. 24, Tavenner put Quality Software Services in that new role — a move that, people familiar with the project say, began to resolve conflicting and contradictory directions from her agency.
Amid so much publicity about having a better website by Nov. 30, the administration is expecting a new crush of visitors to HealthCare.gov, raising fears that the site will once again be overwhelmed. I wouldn't worry.
A lot of people, especially the young, are turned off and have tuned out -- if they even know about it.
Zients’s metrics, meanwhile, are improving.
Pffft!
Who does he think he is, Don Rumsfeld?
When the repair effort began, response time — how long it takes a page to load — averaged eight seconds; now it is less than one. The error rate — how often users are unable to click through to the next page — was 6 percent; now it is 0.75 percent.
In recent days, Zients has sought to lower expectations, telling reporters that repairs will continue and that there will be “no magic moment when our work is complete.”
Translation: the website is still s***.
--more--"
Related:
"White House expects to meet health site deadline; Real test remains: How will it work when use is heavy?" by Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein | Washington Post, November 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Administration officials are preparing to announce Sunday that they have met their Saturday deadline for improving HealthCare.gov, according to government officials, in part by expanding the site’s ability to handle 50,000 users at once.
And if this government says something it has got to be true!
But they have yet to meet all their internal goals for repairing the federal health care site, and it will not become clear how many consumers it can accommodate until more people try to use it.
As of Friday night, federal officials and contractors had achieved two goals, according to government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing operations. They had increased the system’s capacity and reduced errors. On the other hand, the site’s pages do not load as fast as they want, officials said, and they are working to ensure large numbers of consumers can enter the site.
Meaning it is NOT FIXED!
An official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency overseeing the federal health insurance exchange, said the site’s true capacity is somewhat murky because they need to see how it performs under ‘‘weekday traffic volumes’’ when demand is at its peak.
Federal employees and IT contractors were expected to work through the night Friday to try to reach one of the remaining targets: determining how many people per hour should be able to register and log onto the site. An earlier attempt to make the fix failed several days ago.
But it's all up and ready to receive you now!
I know because my government and mouthpiece media told me so!
Nov. 30 was not originally intended to be a key date for the online enrollment system, but it took on outsized political and public importance when administration officials said five weeks ago that the ‘‘vast majority of users’’ would be able to sign up for insurance through the site by that day.
Then WHY SO MUCH FOCUS on THE WEBSITE above ALL OTHER THINGS?
The cancellations and delays all relegated to the back burner.
A combination of federal employees, outside contractors, and a handful of technical and management experts have worked at breakneck speed for five weeks to improve the website’s performance as the White House has come under withering criticism from its political opponents.
It's deserved criticism as they continue to rush to fix! Gotta get those enrollees registered so the U.S government can start counting tax receipts!
In an interview with Barbara Walters that aired on ABC on Friday night, President Obama said he was confident that, in time, Americans would come to embrace his controversial health care law.
Then he needs a mental health check-up right away. Crappy corporate health care written by in$urers and pharmaceuticals is not the way we wanted to go.
************************
The blitz to rehabilitate the site has entailed an unusual public and private partnership over the past five weeks.
It's a fa$ci$t government now.
The White House rejected the idea of turning over the work of fixing the site mainly to Silicon Valley allies, some of whom served as the president’s campaign operatives, deciding instead to selectively tap a handful to help steer the project.
Michael ‘‘Mikey’’ Dickerson, a Google employee who is on leave and volunteered on both of Obama’s campaigns, has led the twice-daily calls in which the entire team has discussed ongoing problems and how to solve them. Civis Analytics chief technology officer Gabriel Burt, who served as lead analytics engineer and product manager for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, has also been deeply involved.
That is who he called for help?
************************
The upgrade that workers were planning to attempt at midnight Friday meant that the site would be unavailable overnight from 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday until 8 a.m. Saturday....
As they rush to fix!
--more--"
Think I'll wait to try and sign up again.
"Officials say worst problems over for health care site" by Philip Elliott | Associated Press, December 02, 2013
WASHINGTON — The worst of the online glitches, crashes, and delays may be over for the problem-plagued government health care website, the Department of Health and Human Services said Sunday.
May be?
But that doesn’t mean HealthCare.gov is completely ready....
But?
‘‘There’s not really any way to verify from the outside that the vast majority of people who want to enroll can now do so, but we’ll find out at least anecdotally over the coming days if the system can handle the traffic and provide a smooth experience for people trying to sign up,’’ said Larry Levitt, a senior adviser at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Translation: we will be served swirling, steaming plates of steaming stinking s*** by this government and its mouthpiece media in the upcoming days about how great the revamped is the website!
But, he added, its challenge now is to persuade users who were frustrated during their first visit to give it another chance.
Americans aren't like that. You fail us once, we give up on you. No more second chances. It's been inculcated in us as we have been indoctrinated into an individual consumer society.
Politically, a fixed website could also offer a fresh start for President Obama and his fellow Democrats after a wave of bad publicity surrounding the president’s chief domestic achievement.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
This really is ALL ABOUT the POLITICAL HEALTH and REHABILITATION of Democraps!
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
‘‘This website is technology. It’s going to get better. It’s already better today,’’ said Representative Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat who is a cochairman of the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus. ‘‘And we’re only going to be working out more kinks as we go forward.’’
And thus most of the brouhaha around the website will begin to disappear from my news pages.
Why was it such a piece of s*** to begin with?
In fact, why are all software programs s*** except those written for bank ATMs?
And why isn't the liberal caucus out front on ending the wars?
--more--"
Yeah, it was all a big joke and very funny!
So will be losing the Senate next year because of this:
"Medicaid changes strain doctors; Millions joining program may find care scarce" by Abby Goodnough | New York Times, November 29, 2013
SAN DIEGO — Dr. Ted Mazer is one of the few ear, nose, and throat specialists in this region who treat low-income people on Medicaid, so many of his patients travel long distances to see him.
But now, as California’s Medicaid program is preparing for a major expansion under President Obama’s health care law, Mazer says he cannot accept additional patients under the government insurance program for a simple reason: It does not pay enough.
“It’s a bad situation that is likely to be made worse,” he said.
This thing really is a damn disaster!
His view is shared by many doctors around the country. Medicaid for years has struggled with a shortage of doctors willing to accept its low reimbursement rates and red tape, forcing many patients to wait for care, particularly from specialists like Mazer.
I'd call it rationing but we don't have that here in AmeriKa, the greatest health system in the greatest country on the greatest planet in the history of the universe.
Yet in just five weeks, millions of additional Americans will be covered by the program, many of them older people with an array of health problems....
Community clinics, which typically provide primary care but not specialty care, have expanded and hired more medical staff to meet the anticipated wave of new patients. And managed-care companies are recruiting more doctors, nurse practitioners, and other professionals into their networks, sometimes offering higher pay if they improve care while keeping costs down. But it is far from clear that the demand can be met, experts say.
In California, with the nation’s largest Medicaid population, many doctors say they are already overwhelmed and unable to take on more low-income patients....
Adding to the expansion of the Medicaid rolls is a phenomenon that Medicaid experts are calling the “woodwork effect,” in which people who had been eligible for Medicaid even before the Affordable Care Act are enrolling now because they have learned about the program through publicity about the new law. As a result, Medicaid rolls are growing....
Yeah, they came out of the woodwork seeking health care like pestilence!
Managed-care companies that serve the Medicaid population are still hustling to recruit more doctors and other providers to treat the new enrollees....
Yeah, the poor, billions-per-year-in-profits, health in$urers.
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Obama tries to shift health law focus to positives
Of course, Obama has $5 billion dollars to just dole out:
"Obama increases pledge to AIDS fund; $5b offer to boost global fight is part of broad strategy" by Ariana Eunjung Cha | Washington Post, December 03, 2013
Now I'm not saying money should not be spent on fighting AIDS; however, it would have been nice had the thing not been created in a military lab.
As usual, we must a$k who benefits from treatments without cures?
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday pledged to give up to $5 billion in US money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years, saying an ‘‘AIDS-free generation’’ may be within reach.
The pledge represents $1 billion more than the United States committed during the previous round of funding in 2010, when Obama faced criticism for not doing enough and setting a bad example that gave other countries an excuse to limit their donations.
This as sequestration and federal budget cuts are blamed for service reductions and cuts here.
The $5 billion contribution, the amount activists asked for, will be met if other countries commit to giving $10 billion as per a 1-to-2 funding ratio set by Congress.
‘‘We’re making progress,’’ Obama said at a White House event marking World AIDS Day, which was Sunday. ‘‘But we’re all here today because we know how much work remains to be done.’’
I've heard that term in so many contexts the last decade I believe the exact opposite when I see it -- especially considering the me$$enger.
Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Germany, and France also announced separately that they had raised their contributions to the Global Fund, which was created in 2002 to coordinate international efforts to fight infectious disease in low-income countries. It provides more than 20 percent of resources for HIV treatment and prevention.
The announcements represent a redoubling of global efforts to fight AIDS. Despite billions spent on research in the 34 years since the virus was recognized, a vaccine has eluded scientists, and efforts to stop the spread of the disease through preventive measures, such as microbial gels, have been unexpectedly challenging. One million Americans are living with AIDS today.
You think what you want of elu$ive $earch for a vaccine(!).
In his remarks, Obama said ‘‘we need to keep focusing on investments to communities that are still being hit hardest, including gay and bisexual men, African-Americans, and Latinos.’’
Why is he pushing stereotypes?
“We need to keep up the fight in our cities, including Washington, D.C., which in recent years has reduced diagnosed infections by nearly half,’’ Obama said. “And we’re going to keep pursuing scientific breakthroughs.
‘‘We will win this battle, but it is not over yet,’’ he concluded.
Once again, an issue is framed within the context of war by my government or mouthpiece media.
In announcing the additional funds on Monday, White House officials outlined a multipronged approach to fighting AIDS.
On the research front, the National Institutes of Health will redirect $100 million to advance studies into new generation therapies to develop an HIV cure. In terms of public health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a campaign to get all pregnant women in the United States screened for HIV.
DNA collection program.
Obama has been under pressure in recent months from US lawmakers, activists, and public health leaders worldwide to do more to fight the global pandemic.
In early November, a bipartisan group of 40 lawmakers urged him to double support for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program strongly supported by former president George W. Bush that has provided treatments for millions of people infected with HIV in Africa. US funding has fallen since Bush’s tenure.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Broken City Contradiction
Some of the funding shortfall over the years has been made up from private sources, largely from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which on Monday pledged to give up to an additional $500 million in matching funds to the Global Fund. The foundation run by the Microsoft cofounder and world’s richest man has contributed $1.4 billion to the global program in total.
I'm sorry, but I no longer trust in the goodne$$ of elite $hitters. Planet has been too f***ed up for too long with them in charge.
The largest chunk — $750 million — was donated last year as an emergency measure to keep AIDS drugs programs afloat as support from governments dwindled amid the economic downturn.
Since it was founded in 1997, the Gates Foundation has become one of the most influential players in global health care, disbursing 17 percent of the world’s funds for research and development.
The NIH, in comparison, provides 36 percent.
--more--"
Time for your medication:
"Long phase-in for drug safety law; Pharmacy system will take decade to finish, FDA says" by Kay Lazar | Globe Staff, December 03, 2013
It will take 10 years to fully phase in a new law intended to better protect consumers from counterfeit, stolen, contaminated or otherwise harmful prescription drugs, such as the tainted pain medications from a Massachusetts pharmacy that killed 64 people in a national fungal meningitis outbreak, federal regulators said Monday.
WTF? Why so long?
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Compounding Conundrum
No one has been charged with negligent homicide yet?
Under a time frame outlined by US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, manufacturers and companies that repackage medications will be required within four years to attach unique product identification information to each package of most prescription drugs.
The information will include the lot number and its expiration date.
Within six years, wholesale drug distributors, followed by companies that dispense drugs, such as pharmacies, will be required to sell only products that contain the unique product identification information.
However the law, signed by President Obama last week, exempts a number of prescription drugs.
PFFFFT!
*********************************
The FDA anticipates a fully functioning electronic tracking system within a decade.
Eventually every movement of anything on this planet will be tracked by a higher authority.
Welcome to a Brave New World.
The system will be able to trace the production and sale of each prescription drug covered under the law and allow regulators to recall harmful products more efficiently.
“We have a lot of work to do now,” Hamburg said during a conference call with reporters.
Key provisions aimed at compounding pharmacies, like the now-closed New England Compounding Center in Framingham that made tainted steroids, depend on them voluntarily submitting to enhanced regulation from the FDA by registering as “outsourcing facilities.”
Excuse me?
Compliance with the law is voluntary?
Then it is more of a plea than a law, isn't it?
More than 750 people in 20 states were sickened by the steroids, including 64 who died, according to regulators. Critics are skeptical that the law would prevent another public health tragedy similar to that outbreak.
Compounding companies typically have custom-mixed small batches of medicines for individual patients who can’t take over-the-counter medications, and these operations have been regulated and inspected at the state level.
But in recent years, large-volume compounding pharmacies, such as New England Compounding, have sprung up, operating more like manufacturers, which are supposed to be regulated by the FDA. Jurisdiction over these large-volume compounding companies has been murky and the new law was intended to address this void.
Hamburg acknowledged that the voluntary nature of the law will make it difficult for her agency to track the quality of medicines made by compounding pharmacies that choose not to register for oversight.
Hamburg said she believes market pressures will encourage many compounding companies to eventually register with her agency.
“We certainly plan to talk to all the various stakeholders and organizations that are involved in our health care system about this new program so they can understand the benefits of an FDA-reviewed product,” she said.
Yes, the oversight is voluntary for them; for the American citizen and patient, the records are all sent over to the IRS!
Regulators said they didn’t know how many larger compounding companies would fall under the new category of outsourcing facilities.
“The statistics are not very good,” said Jane Axelrad, as associate director in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “From conversations we have had . . . the rough estimate is 700 to 1,000.”
WTF? How can they not have statistics?
--more--"
As opposed to voluntary there is also force:
"ACLU sues US bishops over Catholic hospital ethics" Associated Press, December 03, 2013
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against the US Conference of Catholic Bishops over its ethics guidelines for Roman Catholic hospitals, arguing the directives were to blame for negligent care of a pregnant woman who went into early labor and whose baby died within hours.
As much as I support civil rights, I do not care for the divisive ACLJU.
The ACLU alleges the bishops were negligent because their religious directives prevented Tamesha Means from being told that continuing her pregnancy posed grave risks to her health and her child was not likely to survive. She was treated at Mercy Health Muskegon, a Catholic hospital in Michigan.
‘‘It’s not just about one woman,’’ said Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan ACLU. ‘‘It’s about a nationwide policy created by nonmedical professionals putting patients in harm’s way.’’
The lawsuit comes amid a wave of mergers between Catholic and secular hospital systems throughout the United States, raising questions about how much religious identity the hospitals will retain and whether they will provide medical services that conflict with church teaching.
Advocates for abortion rights and others fear the mergers will limit access to a full range of medical care for women. About 13 percent of US hospitals are Catholic....
I guess I just don't want to talk about it. Sorry.
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Notre Dame sues over birth control mandate
Since insulting Catholicism seems to be the order of the day:
"Netanyahu gives pope book by father on Inquisition" Associated Press, December 03, 2013
VATICAN CITY — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday gave Pope Francis a book about the Inquisition in Spain written by Netanyahu’s late father, an expert on the Catholic Church’s forced conversion and expulsion of Jews in the 15th century.
Isn't that a bit like a German handing a copy of Mein Kampf to Netanyahu?
Netanyahu presented a Spanish translation of the 1995 book, ‘‘The Origins of the Inquisition,’’ to Francis during their 25-minute private audience.
He also gave the pope a large silver menorah. Which the Pope promptly shoved up his ass to please his hosts?
Netanyahu’s father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, was an Israeli historian who died last year. A Zionist activist who opposed partitioning Palestine between Arabs and Jews, he was best known in academic circles for his research into the medieval Inquisition against the Jews of Spain.
Honestly, I'm really, really tired of the Jewcentric bent of the Amerikan media and Boston Globe.
It's no longer news; it's self-serving agenda advancement for a certain select group of people.
‘‘To his Holiness Pope Franciscus, a great shepherd of our common heritage,’’ the Israeli leader wrote on the inside front page of the book.
Netanyahu joked that although his father spoke perfect Spanish as a result of his research, ‘‘my Spanish doesn’t exist.’’ The Israeli leader and Argentine pope spoke through a translator.
Francis thanked him and presented Netanyahu with a small bronze plaque of St. Paul.
I'm glad he didn't waste any silver or gold on the war criminal f***.
--more--"
Related: Globe Pi$$es on Pope
Maybe they should schedule an exam under Obamacare -- if they can get through the registration process on the website that is.
