# Obamacare sign up **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089 "2013-10-01T14:13:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/41 "2013-10-02T18:25:32Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I don’t think it’s that. I didn’t really think the programming would have been that smart, but I just wanted to throw it out as a best-case-scenario possibility, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/42 "2013-10-02T18:27:51Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > **Terr** , I apologize for this post. Didn’t notice this thread was in GQ until now. It’s ok. I am getting tired of Maryland. I had to be here before because of work. Now that I am not tied down I am considering moving. Probably Texas - there seems to be a school in Houston that is a good fit for my ASD kid. And saving a bundle on state income tax (last couple of years I paid more in Maryland income tax than I paid to the feds) is an incentive as well. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/43 "2013-10-02T19:17:22Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > It seems you missed my point. Let me explain. > > You said “The site is inaccessible. No one can use it.” If you are unable to access it because it was overloaded, then it certainly is not true that “no one can use it”, since it was the people who are able to use it that are the ones overloading it. > > Hence my referencing the “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” Yogi Berra quote. I had the same problem of no security questions appearing when I tried to set up an account weeks ago. It isn’t an issue with them being overloaded. (Unless they’ve been under huge stress for weeks on end, I guess…) Obviously this has no bearing on Obamacare as a policy. It’s just really frustrating. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/44 "2013-10-02T23:10:54Z")
At last! The great unwashed get to see a programming effort which doesn’t even know IF it’s going to exist, WHAT all info will be required, and HOW, exactly, the info is to be used is told “We don’t care - it goes live tomorrow. Buy your own coffee.” Removing the “Register” button is a classic example of “stubbing out” a bit of code that acts in place of a bit which is not-quite-ready. A stub says “here is where that crap the morons on the fourth floor goes, if it ever arrives”. The CA site is completely different in look and feel, but seems to have been properly designed to handle the expansion - it is showing heavy stress, but I haven’t seen it do anything worse than time-out. Blue Shield of CA’s Formulary (a 200 page PDF) took about 20 minutes to load - it is not just govt systems which can be overloaded, and sizing your plumbing system to treat the Superbowl ™ half-time as normal consumption is a waste, isn’t it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/45 "2013-10-03T01:05:02Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > The site is inaccessible. No one can use it. For two days now, with no end in sight. No game ever rolled out like that. Not much of a gamer are you ? Just in the recent past, Simcity was easily a similar level of fail. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/46 "2013-10-03T01:10:59Z")
> [@jacobsta811](#): > > Not much of a gamer are you ? Just in the recent past, Simcity was easily a similar level of fail. Yes, the release of SimCity was, in the words of a Forbes article, [“a case of how not to launch a product”](http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/). The Obamacare web sites’ providers, apparently, studied the case diligently and tried to top it. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/47 "2013-10-03T01:25:32Z")
As a programmer myself, I’d rate the task for the Obamacare programmers as quite a bit harder than that of Simcity’s - _everything_ was 100% under EA’s own control within simcity- it was simply poor planning. No law made them release on whatever date, or made them underbuy servers so badly. The guys doing [healthcare.gov](http://healthcare.gov) have 80 million external dependencies as they are supposed to verify identity, interface with insurance companies, etc. Still big giant fail though, but one I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/48 "2013-10-03T02:42:17Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Yes, the release of SimCity was, in the words of a Forbes article, [“a case of how not to launch a product”](http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/). The Obamacare web sites’ providers, apparently, studied the case diligently and tried to top it. I’m pretty sure EA didn’t have to deal with new CEOs and Boards coming in every few years and deciding to shut the game down because they hate Microsoft. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/49 "2013-10-03T02:56:52Z")
I got signed up for CA and, apparently past the verification steps - where it has to go to Soc Sec, VA, Medicare, who knows - none of which actually has the money to pay for the electricity to be running. Actually, a minor miracle. It seems to have problems actually pulling up the plans/logos/details of the policies: WHICH ARE ARE THE INSURANCE COMPANIES SITES! YEAH PRIVATE INDUSTRY! One of the companies CA chose to allow to participate is Anthem Blue Shield - now a WellPoint for-profit mega-health ration-er which generally makes the news when it gets slapped for screwing a customer just a bit much. Here’s the giggle - it’s web pages encourage the visitor to “Get Involved!” and link to a blatantly anti-ACA “grass-roots” site - when you hover over a State on the map, all it tells you is how much the state spends on Medicaid or some WTF number trying to paint ACA as costing States billions and billions - the most out-Fox Fox line of crap I can imagine. Not surprisingly, their policies are among the most expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/50 "2013-10-03T05:23:25Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > The site is inaccessible. No one can use it. For two days now, with no end in sight. No game ever rolled out like that. There’s a game out right now you may have heard of called [GTA5](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425104,00.asp) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/51 "2013-10-03T05:42:36Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.” It’s not that the wait time is too long. It is, but once you get through the queue, the system screws up. The drop down boxes for the security questions are always empty. Even if I just make up answers to the questions I can’t see, it tells me that the system is too busy at this time. Well, isn’t that the reason I waited in the queue? It would be like if you went to Yogi’s restaurant, waited for two hours, get to the front of the line, be seated, and then have your waitress tell you that they aren’t serving food right now. To you or anyone else. But, hey, what’s the hurry, come back at any time before March! Have a nice night. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/52 "2013-10-03T14:04:16Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Yes, the release of SimCity was, in the words of a Forbes article, [“a case of how not to launch a product”](http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/). And yet EA manages to not go bankrupt. You know, like you said any private company would if they had such a roll-out. You can argue that EA has plenty of other properties but, last I checked, the US government was diversified beyond health care website management as well. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/53 "2013-10-03T14:06:36Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > And yet EA manages to not go bankrupt. You know, like you said any private company would if they had such a roll-out. You can argue that EA has plenty of other properties but, last I checked, the US government was diversified beyond health care website management as well. Yay. Obamacare rollout is a miserable failure, but let’s continue with the excuses. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/54 "2013-10-03T14:17:01Z")
Btw this is day 3 of the rollout. Maryland exchange web site does not allow you to log in or look at the offerings, much less sign up for anything. Government at its best, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/55 "2013-10-03T14:38:37Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Yay. Obamacare rollout is a miserable failure, but let’s continue with the excuses. I suppose that correcting your errors counts as “excuses” now. Well, sure. That makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/56 "2013-10-03T14:43:10Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Yay. Obamacare rollout is a miserable failure, but let’s continue with the excuses. It’s “a miserable failure” because it’s not going very well in your state? That’s a bit much. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/57 "2013-10-03T14:57:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s “a miserable failure” because it’s not going very well in your state? That’s a bit much. It’s not doing “very well” anywhere. As in [zero enrollments in Louisiana](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/360210/zero-enroll-new-la-plan-obamacares-first-day-andrew-johnson). As in Tennessee TV stations searching and [failing to find](http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/tenn-tv-station-cant-find-anyone-whos-successfully-signed-obamacare_759109.html) even one person who managed to sign up. As in CA insurance manager saying [“we have yet to have someone successfully register”](http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/03/insurance-manager-we-have-yet-to-have-someone-successfully-register-on-the-marketplace/). etc. etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/58 "2013-10-03T15:02:55Z")
I will assume you didn’t read the article, rather than deliberately misrepresented it. There were zero enrollments in _one plan_ in Louisiana. ---
**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/59 "2013-10-03T15:04:09Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > The site is inaccessible. No one can use it. For two days now, with no end in sight. No game ever rolled out like that. GTAV, SimCity, Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxy, Aion, all off the top of my head, had massive server problems at launch. Some of those for much, much longer than two days. In fact, I can’t think of a popular or semi-popular MMO that didn’t have log-in errors at launch. Isn’t GQ for _factual_ answers, or do you for some reason think you’re immune? ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/60 "2013-10-03T15:10:02Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I will assume you didn’t read the article, rather than deliberately misrepresented it. There were zero enrollments in _one plan_ in Louisiana. Probably because it was a terrible plan, right? Nothing to do with the exchange web site, I am sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089.md?page=4)