ObamaCare Website Built to Handle Only 50K Visitors Simultaneously
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One big reason why the new federal website for ObamaCare has had so much trouble is because it was built to handle about 50,000 visitors at a time, a former Health and Human Services tech official tells the Washington Post.
(AP Photo/John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal)
For some perspective MadMike’sAmerica, a relatively small site averaging about 300-500K visitors a month with occasional highs of over 1.5 million, can handle about 30K visitors simultaneously with a $300 a month server. Is the government so cheap, or so incompetent it can’t do better than our own little website?
David Brailer, who worked at HHS during the last big launch of a federal health care program—the Medicare drug benefit in 2006, says that’s just plain “weird,” given the intense interest of the rollout. The Medicare site could accommodate twice as many visitors at once. “The math just doesn’t add up.”
The story recounts how everyone from health insurers to state officials to Democratic allies warned the administration repeatedly prior to the launch that it wasn’t ready to go. “Nothing I told them ever surprised them,” says Democrat Rep. Robert Andrews, who was hearing from insurers over the summer. “The White House has acknowledged all along something this massive was going to have implementation problems.” One bright spot for those seeking insurance under ObamaCare: The state-run exchanges are now running relatively smoothly, reports the New York Times. And the AP has a story in which insurance industry execs say there’s plenty of time to fix the glitches on the federal site to make sure people get insured by Jan. 1. (Requiring people to log in before browsing might be one problem to tweak.)
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Why are we always so surprised?
First, let’s be fair. 26 states opted out, and those 26 states were the ones responsible to, as Colorado has, setup their own damned exchanges. So with half of the team on the bench, we see that the coach got caught flat footed.
OTOH, the writing’s been on the wall about the uncooperative, self-destructive morons who are willing to bite off their noses to spite…well, everybody. This “failure to communicate” was no surprise, and so, why did the contractor who was selected to develop the federal site not get “change orders?” The military does it all the time. Instead, probably to the contractor’s dismay, they were forced to deliver the originally-planned tricycle when a Ferrari was needed. Who’s fault is that? Someone indeed dropped the ball, and some bureaucratic heads should definitely roll.
If I was the big O — no, stupid, NOT Oprah — I’d be doing me some very public name takin’ and ass kickin’! But that’s me. Barack is more civil than that. Perhaps he has some bureaucrats rack-mounted with electrodes connected to genitals in GITMO, but it’s not likely that we’ll see a public flogging. Now THERE’s some “must-see TV” that we ain’t gonna see. Damn! That sure would be better than another lame episode of “Survivor.”
Anyway, back to that “fairness” issue, we must remember that the RFP for the federal site was issued years ago. And the low-bid contractor who got the job (probably somebody’s brother-in-law), committed to build a 50K capacity site. My guess is they probably did a pretty good job of that, and we Monday-morning quarterbacks forget that the ink dried on that contract at least 18 months ago. So pity the poor contractor who built it, because they sure as hell did come! And, when word gets out, their client list is going to shrink like George Costanza’s who-hah in a cold swimming pool.
So, once again, we return to the bureaucrats who didn’t see the freight train coming that has now run over them, backed up, and run over them again. I sure as hell bet they wish they were furloughed right now. 🙂
Now that’s some writin’.
LOL David. Thanks for those kind words man and I agree that the government would be hard pressed to outsmart you my friend 🙂
MadMike! Dude! You do yourself a disservice. Whenever I’m talking to friends about my burgeoning career as a writer/Internet Content Creator, and I mention your site – their jaws drop in awe. “You write for MadMike’s America?” Yup. Forget the sites I bust my ass to build up – that nobody’s ever heard of.
OK, so you’re no Ebay, no Google, no Amazon – you’re still a contender.
As to Obama’s mess? Well hell. If they had simply hired me and used WordPress, they’d be good to go. They could have even put the damn thing on FaceBook and gotten better results. You know? I’m here. I’ve always said it. Company’s failing? Too bad. Hey, I’m right here.
This is why NSA spying doesn’t really bother me. The day the U.S. Government hires somebody who’s smart enough to outsmart me, is the day I go straight.
It’s the government. If there is a way to phuque it up, they’ll do it. If there isn’t a way, they’ll invent one.
Whoever setup this cluster f*ck should be fired, and I hope they have been. This was embarrassing incompetence to say the least.