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It's a website that cost $634,320,919 to build...

We're in the midst of a government shutdown and awaiting the October 17 deadline for raising the debt ceiling (which is currently capped at $16.7 trillion). So a measly $634 million of our tax dollars might not sound like much. But consider how these funds were used...

As part of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), U.S. citizens can shop around for health insurance via a government website, http://www.healthcare.gov. At least, that was the plan... until overwhelming traffic crashed the site.

Glitches abound – from user logins being rejected to menus failing to open. According to an article from the Washington Post last week, 4.7 million users visited the site in the first 24 hours... and fewer than 10 actually succeeded in buying insurance. The culprit? Poorly written HTML code.

In 2011, information technology consultant CGI Federal won the contract to build Healthcare.gov. It estimated costs could run up to $93.7 million. So the site ran 577% over budget.

In case you're curious how the final tab compares with other heavily trafficked websites, tech-publishing website Digital Trends says...

For the sake of putting the monstrous amount of money into perspective, here are a few figures to chew on: Facebook, which received its first investment in June 2004, operated for a full six years before surpassing the $600 million mark in June 2010.

Twitter, created in 2006, managed to get by with only $360.17 million in total funding until a $400 million boost in 2011. Instagram ginned up just $57.5 million in funding before Facebook bought it for (a staggering) $1 billion last year. And LinkedIn and Spotify, meanwhile, have only raised, respectively, $200 million and $288 million.

A handful of websites that essentially created the world of online social networking cost a fraction of what Healthcare.gov cost... And they actually work. The beauty of a free market...

The military side (training specifically) of the government typically awards firm fixed price contracts these days. Here's the money to make the website. Oh, it's going to cost more? Not my problem.

CGI Federal would have more closely monitored their spending if that was the case, I'm sure.

Exactly. Change orders pass like knives through butter when doing Gubment contracts. Describing that dynamic doesn't do it justice.

USDA last year was identical.

I'm wrapping up a large implementation at a major cancer research hospital near LA, for their back office systems, their main focus? THE MODULE THAT WE'RE PUTTING IN TO OBTAIN AND TRACK FEDERAL GRANTS!!.

They care less about anything else, but for the first time in their history they have to worry about how they do business and care that it takes 90 people to do a job of 4 in every other sector. I feel like screaming, 'THAT'S MY DAMN MONEY YOU LAZY, OVERPAID FOOLS!!"

Wonder how many people even half of $634,320,919 could have helped

(10-11-2013 07:17 PM)okgc Wrote:  Wonder how many people even half of $634,320,919 could have helped

Not how it rolls in gubment budgeting, you know that.

That was a typical deal made who knows where, we stop that we stop the hemorrhaging.

Until the let the partisan barbs fly!!!

Quote:That was a typical deal made who knows where, we stop that we stop the hemorrhaging.

Pun intended :)?

Politicians try to put the focus on poor people that don't deserve services. Actually the real problem is the politicians and their business associates are knee deep in the slush. The services being provided are just the vehicle used to transfer tax money from the middle class.

Admittedly the software/hardware package must be huge, and interfacing with all the different states and dozens of different private sector based providers a daunting task.

A single payer system like Medicare would have been much simpler to implement.

Quote:Admittedly the software/hardware package must be huge, and interfacing with all the different states and dozens of different private sector based providers a daunting task.

Sure.

Remember that this is one very small aspect of the healthcare system that the Federal Goverment is trying to manage.

Give you confidence?

Quote:A single payer system like Medicare would have been much simpler to implement.

"Simpler"...yes.

Like the IRS I suppose.

From just the implementation perspective, it would have been easier. It was easier for the USSR to administer elections with only one party too. Much easier to track unemployment rates if the gubment is doing all the hiring, and so on and so on.....

I really thought our existing model was broken. I didn't like that only corporations got the tax deduction and you basically had to be one that was making some great scratch, or you had to work for one large enough to have a pool that would impact rates, basically deciding FOR THE WORKERS what their health care and wellness looked like.

But this is more of the same with different drivers. I don't think it's a free market solution any more than our current/declining model. Give us the tax break, let us go hit the market and buy our own insurance if we so wish, or be totally on the hook for the costs, even emergency with no medical bk allowed.

Then watch free market dynamics fix things. I get weary of both sides saying "free market" when they're really saying "under our control".

This blown rollout is just yet another example of gubment people not being able to deliver. I could go on and on, the motivation to succeed and deliver just isn't there, not even in their culture. Work places are like giant Survivor episodes, doing the job is secondary.

Reports from yesterday show that the CGI charges had tripled from the original bid to almost $300 million.
Leaves me wondering how much of the additional costs are requested changes by the Feds.

Apparently there were four "qualified" contractor bids submitted. Suppose those bids are sealed information.
IBM & CSC both American companies should have been two of the other three. Bid winner CGI is Canadian.

Of course 4-6 days of full system testing before launch is foolhardy.

That's way too many days. (JK). Sounds like their rollout was behind and they pushed it anyway, typical of CGI. They don't tell the truth during a project.

I'd love to see the artifacts (RFP, SOW's, project plans, etc), for this gig. Freedom of information should make them open it up, no sealing allowed, not even for the Chicago types.

I'd take the time to read them over and blow up the whole schmozel. I'm starting to understand gbl's perspective more and more.

(10-19-2013 08:26 AM)DesertBronco Wrote:  That's way too many days. (JK). Sounds like their rollout was behind and they pushed it anyway, typical of CGI. They don't tell the truth during a project.

I'd love to see the artifacts (RFP, SOW's, project plans, etc), and for this gig. Freedom of information should make them open it up, no sealing allowed, not even for the Chicago types.

I'd take the time to read them over and blow up the whole schmozel. I'm starting to understand gbl's perspective more and more.

(10-19-2013 08:30 AM)gobaseline Wrote:  

(10-19-2013 08:26 AM)DesertBronco Wrote:  That's way too many days. (JK). Sounds like their rollout was behind and they pushed it anyway, typical of CGI. They don't tell the truth during a project.

I'd love to see the artifacts (RFP, SOW's, project plans, etc), and for this gig. Freedom of information should make them open it up, no sealing allowed, not even for the Chicago types.

I'd take the time to read them over and blow up the whole schmozel. I'm starting to understand gbl's perspective more and more.

These last six or so years since the nuclear bomb hit our economy, until a year or so ago, only "gubment" and quasi-government gigs have been available on a large scale. I've had my share of the government and contractors mentality who worry about the politics first, doing the job second.

When I say politics, let's be clear, it's "what's in it for me" at all levels and passive aggressive behavior to make sure that goal is achieved first and foremost. Then the job.

I'm very happy to have the private sector return, and to that note, I'm starting a gig with a large, well known company that has gone private and removed their stock from the Wall Street boys in order to protect their interests. The people I'm engaging with couldn't be happier, and it's reflecting in our negotiations and work big time. Very refreshing.