Posted on 09/20/2013 6:13:41 PM PDT by La Lydia
We are two weeks away from the lauch of the Obamacare exchanges. Yet, as Christopher Weaver, Timothy Martin, and Jeniffer Corbett Dooren report over at the Wall Street Journal, at this point the government’s $88 billion software used to determine how much people will need to pay for coverage and how much subsidies they are eligible for is suffering from a glitch. This is a pretty big deal since, as the Journal explains: At their front end, the exchanges are essentially websites that consumers use to compare health plans and enroll in coverage. These websites link to data from other parts of the government, such as the Internal Revenue Service, and from health plans to verify eligibility and deliver subsidies for coverage.
Individuals earning up to about $46,000 a year and couples making up to $62,000 are eligible for subsidies to buy insurance. In some cases, the subsidies could cover the full cost of plans. Higher-earning customers can also buy insurance on exchanges but will pay the full price of premiums. Most people who choose not to carry insurance will face penalties for the 2014 tax year.
But so far, it doesn’t work well. According to the Journal piece, the software is spitting out rates that are unreliable and likely miscalculate the subsidies people are eligible for.
If not resolved by the Oct. 1 launch date, the problems could affect consumers in 36 states where the federal government is running all or part of the exchanges. About 32 million uninsured people ...The remaining 14 states are running separate marketplaces with their own software. One of those states, Oregon, has already announced that it would delay some features to fix software bugs...
Four people familiar with the development of the software that determines how much people would pay for subsidized coverage on the federally run exchanges said it was still miscalculating prices...
“There’s a blanket acknowledgment that rates are being calculated incorrectly,” said one senior health-insurance executive who asked not to be named. “Our tech and operations people are very concerned about the problems they’re seeing and the potential of them to stick around.”
As NRO columnist and Manhattan Institute fellow Avik Roy explains this can only lead to serious waste, fraud, and abuse: In general, when there are problems like this, and the program rolls out anyway, the result is substantial amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse. We already know that the government will be relying on the “honor system” for people to report their incomes, and thereby their eligibility, for exchange subsidies. Combine that with the fact that the exchange software can’t calculate what your subsidy actually is, and the result is that many people will be able to game the system to gain larger subsidies than the law intends.
This problem comes on top of the fact that in many states people have no clue how much their insurance premiums will cost them on the exchanges because many states haven’t released their pricing information:
Earlier this month, I and several of my Manhattan Institute colleagues published an interactive map that allows you to figure out how much Obamacare will increase individual-market insurance premiums in your state, relative to what you can purchase today. However, we are still waiting on more than 30 states to release their pricing information, because that information is being closely held by—you guessed it—the federal government; specifically, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
I’d been told by Congressional sources that HHS had been saying that this data would be out on September 19. But now, sources tell me this data won’t be ready until October 1, if even then...
NCPA Senior Fellow Devon Herrick finds that a decade from now, in 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates ObamaCare will only cover about 25 million people who would otherwise be uninsured, leaving 31 million people uninsured. Senior Fellow Greg Scandlen explains that ObamaCare is likely to worsen the problem of the uninsured, even if the program is perfectly implemented.
$88 billion for software? That is insane. A few million? Sure.
These gov’t computer systems are just begging for a hack. If the Chinese can get into DoD databases, they can certainly get into our health networks.
Really. Software firms like Accenture in Texas are CLEANING UP.
The government is going to make the term "blue screen of death" take on a literal meaning.
The whole idea is for legalized, wholesale fraud and corruption.
That’s the reason for obamacare.
On a national scale.
Everyone to be charged, one way or the other.
New world order is making money at every step, hand over fist.
Every deficit dollar the government spends is borrowed from the new world order Treasury bond resellers (major banks).
It’s all a tax that the taxpayer can’t escape.
Hell no
These clowns have gone too far.
Paging the Simpson’s “Ha Ha” guy.
...the government’s $88 billion software...
Someone dial 911 and get me an ambulance, please: I just laughed my ankles off.
I doubt the govt cares. The important thing is having the “navigators” register more Democrat voters.
Yeah, this is good news. Let the Democrat generational meltdown begin. The House needs to call for the suspension of Obamacare, pass a clean bill just suspending the ACA and even letting the President decide when it’s ready to implement, and send that bill on to the Democrat-run Senate and Pres. Obama. Let them ignore it.
We’ll take Congress in 2014. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a veto-proof majority for a generation?
88 billion!!!
A handful of good hacker/software developers and couple of mill. and the software would have worked first time around.
This must refer to the amount of money flowing through the site. It can’t possibly be the cost.
$88 Billion sounds unreal. CSC spent 1 Billion on a database to integrate 400 USAF inventory databases. It was a total failure. Hopefully some of those PMs are working the Obamacare project.
Which Obama donor got that contract?
See also: Billionaire Swindlers Line Up for ObamaCare Cash
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/volpe/billionaire-swindlers-line-up-for-obamacare/
search “health care hub.” It’s worse than you could possibly imagine, and doesn’t include the health information database.
The software cost $88 million, not $88 billion. Still a lot of money, and another fat HHS contract for a no doubt democrat donor.
Please see my most recent post, No. 16.
They could have built a spreadsheet with a form and some minor code for a couple of thousand dollars that would do the calculations perfectly every time.
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