Friday, November 15, 2013

Healthcare.gov and what it says about health informatics in the United States





Americans are now joined together by health care and many are still concerned about the website itself. While many are still upset and demanding a fix, we should take a step back and analyze what this says about the United States government and our current Health Informatics status. As we know, the United States government unsuccessfully launched the healthcare.gov website that was poorly designed and executed. This caused more than a rift towards the Obama Administration and led for the private sector to step in and salvage the site for American Citizens. So what has happened to our innovation? From what I have seen, it seems that private sector has been able to provide Americans with more tangible items that would help them in critical times. Health care is one of the most critical services that Americans will be able to access through our federal government. We cannot afford to have crashes become the norm or a possibility.  

A positive in the entire healthcare.gov fiasco has been Obama’s responses and quick turnaround time in providing solutions.  Obama has spoken regarding the issues promising to fix all issues as soon as possible. Today the White House reported that the Marketplace has been consistent all week with very little issues. This is a big step for the general population. This still should make us uneasy because of past claims to make the Marketplace as easy as Amazon.com orders. Perhaps the White House has over estimated itself. 

The Marketplace is the first example of the American population’s first view into informatics. There is a possibility that this is all too new for us and we are just getting adjusted. The other possibility may be that American innovation has fallen behind. If we go back to my first post or if you have been keeping up with the news during the hearing that was regarding the Healthcare.gov mishap, we have facts that show how the government’s health department blatantly ignored the technical side of the Affordable Healthcare Act and was focused mainly on the policy making side. It could be time to finally let go of all the bureaucracy to avoid these situations.   

What do you think? Are we slowly losing our innovation in the American government or just learning the ropes of American healthcare?


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