US President Obama compares Healthcare.gov’s ‘glitches’ to an Apple product launch

[scott]

During President Obama’s live remarks addressing the government shutdown and Obamacare site outages today, the U.S President compared the issues with healthcare.gov to an Apple product launch (via WashingtonPost):

Now, like every new law, every new product roll-out, there are going to be some glitches in the sign-up process along the way that we will fix. I’ve been saying this from the start. For example, we found out that there have been times this morning where the site’s been running more slowly than it normally will.

And we’re going to be speeding things up in the next few hours to handle all of this demand that exceeds anything that we had expected. Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t. That’s not how we do things in America. We don’t actively root for failure. We get to work, we make things happen, we make them better, we keep going.

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/01/us-pre...roduct-launch/

A glitch? Is that what he thinks the Healthcare.gov suffered? The damn thing doesn't work! Imagine if the iPhone rolled out and the device couldn't make phone calls. Imagine if everyone that opened an app got the message, "service not available, please call your 'app navigator.'"

By the way, there are a total of 34 healthcare navigators in Florida. There is ONE in my county. Their phone system was turned off yesterday.

[gary m]

How ironic???

This is just a foreshadow of things to come from this abomination.

Some of the comments are great.

[Billy Jingo]

Too bad the whole shutdown and default arguments are dominating the news cycle. There could be some serious hay made out of the so-called glitches.

After years of doing everything they can to ensure a difficult rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans have stepped on their own efforts.

[gary m]

Too bad the whole shutdown and default arguments are dominating the news cycle. There could be some serious hay made out of the so-called glitches.

After years of doing everything they can to ensure a difficult rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans have stepped on their own efforts.

Doesn't really matter. Even without the shutdown and default situation, Dems will fall back to their 2 cover all excuses, racism and "it's all Bush's fault".

[Billy Jingo]

Doesn't really matter. Even without the shutdown and default situation, Dems will fall back to their 2 cover all excuses, racism and "it's all Bush's fault".

Haven't heard anyone mention the former president in all this (Clinton has been mentioned but only in the context of a shutdown).

All that work to make sure the Affordable Care Act doesn't work and no one seems to care about the Republicans' success.

[gary m]

Adam... need the sarcasm thingy.

I don't think it will take politicians to prove the ACA doesn't work. It will do that all by itself.

[Billy Jingo]

Adam... need the sarcasm thingy.

I don't think it will take politicians to prove the ACA doesn't work. It will do that all by itself.

I'm not sure about where you live but in Texas, politicians have been working overtime to make sure the Affordable Care Act doesn't work. It is almost an obsession.

[scott]

Too bad the whole shutdown and default arguments are dominating the news cycle. There could be some serious hay made out of the so-called glitches.

After years of doing everything they can to ensure a difficult rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Republicans have stepped on their own efforts.

The Republicans made this rollout difficult? How so?

[scott]

I'm not sure about where you live but in Texas, politicians have been working overtime to make sure the Affordable Care Act doesn't work. It is almost an obsession.

How?

What was done to make it difficult?

[Bob Loblaw 3.0]

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/01/us-pre...roduct-launch/

A glitch? Is that what he thinks the Healthcare.gov suffered? The damn thing doesn't work! Imagine if the iPhone rolled out and the device couldn't make phone calls. Imagine if everyone that opened an app got the message, "service not available, please call your 'app navigator.'"

By the way, there are a total of 34 healthcare navigators in Florida. There is ONE in my county. Their phone system was turned off yesterday.

Last I checked, Apple doesn't force us to use their products, either.

[gary m]

I'm not sure about where you live but in Texas, politicians have been working overtime to make sure the Affordable Care Act doesn't work. It is almost an obsession.

Our governor pushed and got passed Medicaid expansion that allow Michigan residents to qualify for the so-called subsidies (bailouts). Now from some of the numbers I have run on various calculators, you can get ridiculous bailouts if you earn less than 400% of the poverty level depending on your family size and other considerations.
So a family of 4 earning up to about 93,000 can qualify. I don't know about you, but if you are making 90K a year, if you can't afford health insurance, it is because you don't want to afford health insurance.

[gary m]

Last I checked, Apple doesn't force us to use their products, either.

Yeah, but they do force you to use their silly adapter when a USB micro would work just as well.

[Adam]

LOL!

[gary m]

This will be nothing compared to the lines, waiting and snafu's once ACA goes into effect.
Might as well get their taste of governmental incompetence over early.

[Michele]

I think he was hoping his media cheerleaders and pundits would run with his lame analogy but I guess even they have a limit on how much water their bucket holds.