Under fire from political rivals in Maryland's governor's race, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown pledged Tuesday to remain focused on fixing the state's bedeviled health care exchange and conduct a full assessment later on why its website has been troubled with computer problems.
Brown, who is running for governor, took the lead on implementing health care reform in Maryland. Now, as the state's health care exchange remains challenged more than two months after its launch, Brown is faced with questions about whether the exchange is a lemon.
"I am frustrated and disappointed how the launch of the exchange website has gone," Brown said at a news conference in Baltimore. "My focus is on resolving the issues and ensuring that every Marylander can obtain quality, affordable health care." More
I understand that the healthcare bill and website has been a major flop at the federal and state levels, but I would like to add one more observation to the pot. State and Federal websites in general are pretty bad to begin with. Try going to some State and Federal websites and see for yourself. Even take a look at the City and County websites. They are all very poorly designed and not user friendly. You would think that given the cost invested in these websites and programs that they would hire individuals or hire a qualified consultant to design the sites, but it just doesn't seem that is the case. I'm no super savvy HTML website designer, but I have designed the website for my company and quite frankly, it looks and operates better than most government sites and it didn't cost me anything to make other than buying the domain. Granted, I know there is more information of government sites, but they also have more resources than I do so it shouldn't matter.
To add to this, I've gone to the MD healthcare exchange or connection or whatever they are calling it these day to see how much my insurance would cost, but didn't get past the first page because I refuse to put my social security number on a website that was rated 1 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of security. Ironically, Amazon was a 10 on that list. How can a private company manage to have exponentially enhanced security over a government website? It just doesn't make sense. And they wonder why nobody will sign up... I'm just glad that my plan is good enough to "Keep my plan" ...for now
And, not only that. I went there to see if I could price shop as well, and without entering ANY personal I.D., my phone rand for 3 days from insurance salesmen asking for me by name on my cell!
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I understand that the healthcare bill and website has been a major flop at the federal and state levels, but I would like to add one more observation to the pot. State and Federal websites in general are pretty bad to begin with. Try going to some State and Federal websites and see for yourself. Even take a look at the City and County websites.
ReplyDeleteThey are all very poorly designed and not user friendly. You would think that given the cost invested in these websites and programs that they would hire individuals or hire a qualified consultant to design the sites, but it just doesn't seem that is the case. I'm no super savvy HTML website designer, but I have designed the website for my company and quite frankly, it looks and operates better than most government sites and it didn't cost me anything to make other than buying the domain. Granted, I know there is more information of government sites, but they also have more resources than I do so it shouldn't matter.
To add to this, I've gone to the MD healthcare exchange or connection or whatever they are calling it these day to see how much my insurance would cost, but didn't get past the first page because I refuse to put my social security number on a website that was rated 1 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of security. Ironically, Amazon was a 10 on that list. How can a private company manage to have exponentially enhanced security over a government website? It just doesn't make sense. And they wonder why nobody will sign up... I'm just glad that my plan is good enough to "Keep my plan" ...for now
...And a reasonably astute 4th grader could design a better web site
ReplyDeleteAnd, not only that. I went there to see if I could price shop as well, and without entering ANY personal I.D., my phone rand for 3 days from insurance salesmen asking for me by name on my cell!
ReplyDelete