The political ripples from the poorly managed exchange roll-out likely will endure through at least one election cycle. Maybe, late night comedians will run out of material sooner. While criticism and inquiry are appropriate given the foreseeable nature of the problem (some months ago at SEALS even I was moved to highlight the OIG’s predictions that there would be little time for testing the data hub) mostly we will witness technical flaws being fashioned into a cudgel with which to beat the Affordable Care Act and its champion-in-chief.
As Ezra Klein has noted, “the politics here will be driven by the reality. If the policy continues to fail, then there’s nothing the White House can do to keep from being dragged down. Conversely, if the Web site is fixed come mid-December, and the policy begins working pretty well, then there’s no amount of Republican messaging that can make it a failure.”
Sitting here in mid-to-late November, it may be appropriate (or at least refreshing) to seek out some broader lessons that we may take away from this mess. In an illuminating post at the Commonwealth Fund blog David Blumenthal contrasted his experiences inside and outside of government and concluded that the federal government needed to reform its IT procurement system. Extrapolating even further from the current disaster Clay Shirky uses healthcare.gov to pose some fundamental questions about how managers communicate with technologists and how politicians approach Internet interaction with citizens. His “litmus test” for “whether out political class grasps the internet”? “Can anyone with authority over a new project articulate the tradeoff between features, quality, and time?” Those managing healthcare.gov failed that test.
