First, apologies to my readers for the diversion from the usual fare, but I’ll point out that this entry is covered under the masthead in the category of “recent news” and there’s a relevant WUWT category.
Since like many of you, I’ve been forced to sign a document (at my radio station where I employed part-time) that confirms I’ve been given another document that advises me of my Obamacare rights, and of course being in tune to the news, I’ve been wondering if the claims about the Obamacare websites are as bad as claimed.
I read an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune “Sebelius visit fails to reassure as health care website glitches persist” that said:
Sebelius, who is making similar trips to cities across the country to spread the word about the website, told the audience of about 100 people that Healthcare.gov was “open for business.”
“Believe me, we had some early glitches,” said Sebelius, who was introduced by Rooney, a backer of the law. “But it’s getting better every day.”
So, I decided to find out myself. I went to http://healthcare.gov and chose my state, California. What follows is a record of what I actually got. I never made it past step 1:
Try it yourself: https://coveredca.com/shopandcompare/
NOTE: To be accurate, the website security certificate will work if the “www” is used as prefix, but not the link above sans www. By following the link from the Tribune article, with no other changes on my part, I ended up with the sans “www” connection, which they didn’t get a proper security certificate for. One wonders how many other “glitches” exist in basic security on these websites.
Even when you go in with the “www” there are problems. In Firefox I get this:
UPDATE: Reader Ben points out that it gets a failing grade from an SSL grading service, SSL Labs:
Source: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=coveredca.com
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@philjourdan
No David A in this thread
I wasn’t David Appell when I got up this morning
My President is not called Barack Obama
My indignation (more properly described as dismay) is not feigned.
My “broken” NHS ‘which we all know doesn’t work’ delivers a life expectancy greater than that of the USA
Food for thought
Dave
Oct. 18, 2013, 1:08 a.m. EDT
Obamacare woes widen as insurers get wrong data
Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.
Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-woes-widen-as-insurers-get-wrong-data-2013-10-18
Dave A wrote, “My “broken” NHS ‘which we all know doesn’t work’ delivers a life expectancy greater than that of the USA”
Dave, your NHS achieves its claimed life expectancy numbers the same way that the climate movement achieves its 97% consensus: by fraud.
The biggest deception used to hide the truth about socialized medicine is the way they treat newborns. The USA has a very poor infant mortality ranking, and liberals claim that infant mortality rates in the USA are higher than in Europe. But they’re wrong. The reason that infant mortality rates appear to be lower in Europe is that countries with socialized medical care don’t count some of their dead newborns.
In the USA, any baby that draws a breath is given world-class medical care, and if he dies his death is counted as infant morality, no matter how tiny or premature he was. But in most countries with socialized medicine, if a baby is born sufficiently premature or handicapped, he is given no special care. He is counted as stillborn, and doesn’t count toward the infant mortality rate, even if he lives for hours.
The European health care systems save a lot of money that way, but they also break a lot of parents’ hearts.
Ironically, the fact that American at-risk babies get better, more aggressive care than do European at-risk babies, and have a better chance of survival, is the basis for the liberals’ dishonest claim that America has worse infant mortality rates.
This statistical slight-of-hand also serves to artificially inflate European average lifespans (“life expectancy at birth”), making it appear as though Europeans live longer than Americans, which is also untrue. This false claim, in turn, is often cited by liberal supporters of government-controlled heath care as proof that European health care is better than American health care, when, actually, the opposite is true.
The LA Times had a good article last year.
ADI has an even better one.
Oops! The 97% consensus fraud link should be: http://tinyurl.com/Clim97pct
Sorry about that!
Dave A says:
October 18, 2013 at 9:22 am
As you may be aware, the difference in life expectancy between the US & UK owes to our almost four times higher traffic fatality rate. Americans drive more miles per capita than Britons, so die on our roads more, & it’s farther between trauma centers, as a result of 40 times more land area & lower population density. The rate is however declining.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA547ComparativeHealth.html
Nothing like facts to spoil a good conversation.
To make it easier for crooks, some of the state sites are .com or .org, instead of .gov . Colorado is even worse than California -it has a certificate that belongs to something called wpengine.com, and of course, gets an F.
.. and Connecticut is a bad joke
A connection between the off topic discussion here about US entry into WWII & Obamacare occurs to me. Before WWII, health insurance was promoted by doctors so that they could be sure of getting paid for their services in the Depression. The war changed this.
The successful American private health insurance system which Obamacare is in the process of destroying began during WWII, when wage caps meant that businesses needing workers turned to offering day care & health insurance, among other benefits, in order to attract them.
The most important of these programs was run by Kaiser shipyards, which built the Liberty ships which saved Britons from starving & freezing in the dark & enabled them to stay in the war against Germany & Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Permanente#History
Employer-provided insurance & direct care were supplemented in 1965 by Medicare for retirees & Medicaid for the poor without jobs, working part time or for companies without health plans. Of all the ways to encourage people without insurance who could afford to buy it, Obamacare is the worst.
Great example, milodonharlani! The Kaiser shipyards were exactly how private health care works, should work, *does* work. During the War, there was a decision made by the men who were subject to the draft unless they belonged to the “exempt” classification of employment. Shipbuilders were absolutely exempt, but so were many other classifications of manufacturing employment (aircraft, trucks/tanks, mining, explosives, and so on). Kaiser needed to attract as many employees as they could, so they offered one of the few things they could as an attraction — healthcare. They couldn’t do too much about pay (caps on income) or certainly about consumption (almost everything was subject to coupons). Just about the only way that Kaiser could attract workers was to offer very good healthcare options.
Keep in mind that, while the U.S. was on what was called a “war-time” footing, it was not a complete nationalized economy. Individuals were able to change jobs without government permission — so, individual decisions often meant a movement towards the most economically (on an individual basis) advantageous position. So, a male worker (subject to the draft) who was an exempt worker in the Ford aircraft factories in Michigan could choose to move to Connecticut to work on building Liberty ships, if not for more pay, then at least better health care.
Here we come to the crux of the underlying assumptions of Obamacare: That the young, healthy people will ignore their own personal self-interest and buy expensive health care insurance in order to subsidize old geezers who need a wheelchair. (Question: Did Lenin really believe in the New Soviet Man, or did Stalin really have it right, that the NSM had to be forced, not convinced?) We are, after all, talking about young people whose concerns are more tied towards the latest electronic toys and nightclubs rather than helping out Uncle Bob who belongs to the GOP?
Cynical? Yes, much.
My apologies for breaking my promise not to weigh in on my opinions.
Wouldn’t the amount of health care insurance differ from State to State? You have different climate zones, i.e. California against the desert regions in Central USA, the Northern east coast and Alaska and Southern American States. Australian Medicare, one has the choice to go private for a charge, but all unemployed, pensioners etc., get cover for medications at a low cost price, hospital care at public hospitals all you need is a medicare card. The taxpayer pays 1% of his/her pay to help and this might be increased soon. All our illegal boat people get free medical care and some arrive in wheelchairs???? Depends where you live too, and we do have the Flying Doctor Service for outback Australia, and most regional hospital can cope but with the most serious injuries. But our Armidale hospital has a helicopter landing in the cricket oval across from the hospital to take babies or other patients the hospital hasn’t the medical facilities to cope with these medical emergencies. I always feel sad when I hear it droning overhead, especially seeing a new born baby in a humiecrib being wheeled out. But best of luck and hope it is settled soon.
New Zealand does not cover Australians who reside there temporary unless its an emergency and they are treated free at a public hospital. But people are complaining illegal boat people get free dental and medical, and some come with TB. The Australian system is far better than UK as far as obtaining specialist consultations. Certainly medicare covers most of the consultation, but you have to fill in the rest. Unless like my surgeon replacing my hip, bulk bills for those over 65.
But you have to wait maybe 12 months for the op.
Bryan Johnson says:
October 21, 2013 at 4:37 am
Henry Kaiser had experience before the war with company-sponsored clinics for industrial accidents among workers at his major construction sites, like the Hoover, Bonneville & Grand Coulee Dams, which expanded to include the families of workers on long-term projects.
Our Depression Era & WWII development of employer-supported, private insurance & clinics is one reason why Truman wasn’t able to sell a US version of the NHS, & why LBJ had to settle for Medicare & Medicaid instead of going the whole hog with a single (government) payer system. Even the industrial unions liked our system as it evolved. Today they are suffering buyer’s remorse for backing Obama, Pelosi & Reid’s half-baked scheme.
Well, okay, that’s correct: Kaiser did have private — private — health insurance for his companies before the War. That doesn’t take away from the model that such voluntary incentives are an attraction to bring in the best workers. Any employee just naturally gravitates towards the best deal he can get.
Truman was reasonably sane (even if he was a Democrat), but Johnson was just a complete political prostitute. Sorry, but he was a cousin of mine, from the Texas branch of the family. Bastard. *My* family was from the Mississippi/Tennessee branch, so there.
bushbunny says:
October 20, 2013 at 11:55 pm
Our deserts are more in the West than centrally located. Deserts are generally considered to receive less than ten inches of precipitation per year, at least in the US. The short grass prairie of the western Great Plains near the center of the country average 12.6″, IIRC. The tall grass prairie to its east gets around 30 to 35″, with the mixed grass prairie in between.
The insurance exchanges are by state, like Medicaid (for the “poor”). Some state Web sites are working less horribly than some of the others.
In Armidale, NSW, when it was first settled, our hospital was funded by employers who covered the medical bills and paid an employee insurance, as labor was in demand then. But we had few doctors and they had to be paid for. (1839-1880) The same hospital has been extended of course ever since. But the cost comes from the State Government and with some Federal assistance. Medicare is federally funded. I just hope this is sorted out soon, as no one wants the USA to not pay their debts. It will be a terrible blow not only for Americans but the rest of the world.
Bryan Johnson says:
October 21, 2013 at 7:08 pm
I wouldn’t say that Kaiser really had insurance per se before the war, but he did definitely attract workers with a well-developed system by 1943 at the latest.
My civil & mechanical engineer grandfather was a contemporary in infrastructure construction of Kaiser’s in the Pacific Northwest & California, but he retired when FDR was elected. And of Hoover, who was of course mostly overseas mine engineering, then a philanthropist after WWI before entering government.
Sorry about the LBJ connection. A monstrous, mendacious, murderous, cowardly, raging a$$hole drunken bastard of the lowest order. But then Hillary couldn’t sell a universal, national system, either, & she’s only some of those things.
milodonharlani says:
October 21, 2013 at 7:17 pm
“Sorry about the LBJ connection…”
My wife once asked me to say just once nice thing — just one — about L.B.J. “Just in the sense of Christian charity,” Phyllis said. I thought about it for a few minutes and then remembered what m Grandfather once said, “Well, he wouldn’t have stolen a *hot* stove.”
As for Hillary Clinton, well considering that she’ll almost certainly be the next President, what can I say? I’m just glad that I live 47 degrees north where there are lots of deer and prime timer.
bushbunny says:
October 21, 2013 at 7:13 pm
There’s no risk of the US not paying its debts. Even had the deadline passed, we could have paid out of tax receipts coming in.
The problem though is that thanks to being the world’s reserve currency, we can pay our debts in debased tender. In the five Obama years, our national debt has grown from ten trillion to 17 trillion. And that doesn’t even take into account what’s coming down the pike, the gigantic & growing entitlement programs Social Security & Medicare. Our real looming national debt over the next 30-odd years is around 100 trillion. There’s not enough money in the world to pay for it, so one way or another we have to default, probably by further inflating the currency, paying off the debt at a dime to the dollar.
Bryan Johnson says:
October 21, 2013 at 7:39 pm
That’s a better come back than I could have come up with. I’d have said that at least he never raped his daughters, like Joe Kennedy, although he might have stolen from his mistresses, nor bumped off any of his girlfriends, as his sons did. That we know of.
@milodonharlani & Bryan Johnson – re: LBJ
If the request was recent, I would have simply said “He has never looked better”.
I didn’t know Joe Kennedy raped his daughters? He was not popular in London before the out break of WWII. Seems he argued with Churchill about the likely hood of Britain losing any war, then beat it back to the US to hopefully challenge the presidential elections. But he was no match for Roosevelt and Churchill and quite honestly this is just the impression we Poms had of him, possibly wrong of course. But Obamacare why not tax employers and employees just a small part of their income to pay for it.
@bushbunny
It’s not a small part of income, it’s substantial. Most people will have WORSE insurance than they had previously, but pay more for it. Doctors are exiting the system while supposedly more patients are being brought into it. The costs and future uncertainty in costs of employing people is causing small employers to not hire new employees, and many employers, large and small are scaling back their work forces in response. This is possibly a large effect in the worst recovery from a recession ever — it’s keeping unemployment high. Obamacide fixes nothing that was broken, and breaks many things that were working. And will put our children in debt — we were told it would cost $800bn over 10 years — that’s looking to be underestimated by a factor of 3 to 5.
But apart from that, you’re right, why not?
If we want to rope around the issues of climate change and statist control of health control, what better example than today’s ((Wednesday, October 22nd) official pronouncement that Our Dear Leader and his minions are now expressing: “All is well. Do not worry.”
We have *always* been at war with Eastasia! So says Our Dear Leader, so is the truth!
There are always the opportunities to subvert the official given truth. Just one little subversive little thing at a time. It’s not heroic (I learned that lesson a long, long time ago), but it can be effective. The “memory hole” cannot win, if you’re willing.
bushbunny says:
October 22, 2013 at 6:35 pm
“I didn’t know Joe Kennedy raped his daughters?”
The only one for sure was his mildly retarded youngest daughter. When she complained, he had her lobotomized & shunted off to an institution for the rest of her life.
“He was not popular in London before the out break of WWII. Seems he argued with Churchill about the likely hood of Britain losing any war, then beat it back to the US to hopefully challenge the presidential elections. But he was no match for Roosevelt and Churchill and quite honestly this is just the impression we Poms had of him, possibly wrong of course.”
He was not popular because he was pro-Nazi. He was essentially declared persona non grata by the UK & recalled by FDR. He couldn’t challenge FDR for president in 1940, as he was in the UK until late October. He knew he couldn’t get elected president after the US entered the war, so transferred his ambition to his eldest son, Joe, jr. Old Joe’s insistence on Young Joe & Jack being war heroes to further their future careers got the older boy killed & almost did in Jack.
“But Obamacare why not tax employers and employees just a small part of their income to pay for it.”
It would take a huge part of their income & bring the economy to an even more screeching halt. Why have the government involved at all? Our system of employers’ helping their workers pay for group insurance works well. Why mess up that part of it? The poor already get Medicaid out of tax receipts & the retired have Medicare from age 65, into which they & their employers have paid all their working lives. That leaves just those who don’t work for a company with an insurance or HMO plan & chose not to get their own private insurance. They’re mainly young, but most could afford high deductible, low premium catastrophic insurance.
There are better ways to encourage “young invincibles” to buy cheap insurance than making it a federal offense not to have it. For instance, states could require licensed drivers to get it, as is now the case with auto insurance. It could also be made more affordable by allowing insurance to be bought across state lines & encourage group rates for the self-employed.
But the single best reform would be in our tort law, which increases health care costs by about 25%, due not just to doctors’ malpractice insurance rates but even more so from unnecessary tests & procedures to guard against law suits from ambulance chasing PI lawyers.
If the government must be more involved than it was before Obamacare, then a better approach would be insurance vouchers or individual health accounts, like tax-deferred IRAs & 401K savings plans.
Thank you for that information I was thinking more along the lines of our Medicare, when all taxpayers provide 1% of their tax towards medicare. That is the federally funded NHS. But they can also take out private insurance too.
bushbunny says:
October 23, 2013 at 6:00 pm
In the latest polls since Obamacare Websites tried to launch, Americans have turned even more against the crazy scheme. Majorities now favor repeal. It will only get worse when the delayed employer mandate kicks in.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html
Your Medicare system may not be as bad, but Americans (including industrial union members) still prefer the primarily private system we have now to Obamacare. That is not to say that it can’t be improved, but the way to do that is not through a federal government take-over & state coercion of the young.