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October 20, 2013 07:00 pm GMT
Healthcare.gov, a government-run e-commerce website for the Affordable Care Act, does not actually need to exist. The still-dysfunctional federal site could have offloaded all of the work to startups, which were already building more sophisticated price-comparison alternatives to the official site, just like Orbitz does for airline companies. Healthcare.gov was supposed to be an information hub for the needs of millions of uninsured citizens who are now legally required to have a healthcare plan. The federal website ended up offering insurance directly, after 24 states (mostly Republican) refused to design their own e-commerce websites for their residents. Unfortunately, at launch, the federal and state sites crashed. Three weeks later, Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), is in danger of losing public confidence and the enrollment numbers it needs to meet its promise of cheap, quality insurance.But, it’s unclear why the state and federal exchanges websites were built in the first place. “It’s akin to the state wanting to build a search engine,” says Gary Lauer, CEO of health insurance e-commerce site, eHealth. eHealth is one of a handful tech companies certified as “web-based entities,” which are legally allowed to act as alternatives to the federal and state e-commerce sites. Yet, as the regulations were designed, startups take a backseat to government websites. State exchanges are given the option to interface with private partners. Two of the largest states, California and New York, have delayed tech partnerships for about two years. “In the first year, we can’t custom interface, we don’t have enough bandwidth, we don’t have the technological capacity,” Covered California spokesperson, Anne Gonzales, told USA Today. People familiar with Healthcare.gov argue that government-run websites are necessary to conceal the IRS income data that exchanges use to calculate discounts. Obamacare is principally designed for the 48 million uninsured Americans; most enrolling will have some discount based on their age, family status, and income. To protect consumers, the government argument goes, only Healthcare.gov should have access to income data. However, there are plenty of existing federal systems that securely transmit personal information with private companies. If you use H&R Block or TurboTax to complete your tax return, you already have confidence that tech companies can safely deal with your most sensitive data. “There’s nothing new in this privacy area, nothing new that we haven’t been doing for years and years,” says Lauer. For instance, ID.me, which facilitates military veterans
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nhxGQVG3J9I/
How Healthcare.gov Doomed Itself By Screwing Startups
Healthcare.gov, a government-run e-commerce website for the Affordable Care Act, does not actually need to exist. The still-dysfunctional federal site could have offloaded all of the work to startups, which were already building more sophisticated price-comparison alternatives to the official site, just like Orbitz does for airline companies. Healthcare.gov was supposed to be an information hub for the needs of millions of uninsured citizens who are now legally required to have a healthcare plan. The federal website ended up offering insurance directly, after 24 states (mostly Republican) refused to design their own e-commerce websites for their residents. Unfortunately, at launch, the federal and state sites crashed. Three weeks later, Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), is in danger of losing public confidence and the enrollment numbers it needs to meet its promise of cheap, quality insurance.But, it’s unclear why the state and federal exchanges websites were built in the first place. “It’s akin to the state wanting to build a search engine,” says Gary Lauer, CEO of health insurance e-commerce site, eHealth. eHealth is one of a handful tech companies certified as “web-based entities,” which are legally allowed to act as alternatives to the federal and state e-commerce sites. Yet, as the regulations were designed, startups take a backseat to government websites. State exchanges are given the option to interface with private partners. Two of the largest states, California and New York, have delayed tech partnerships for about two years. “In the first year, we can’t custom interface, we don’t have enough bandwidth, we don’t have the technological capacity,” Covered California spokesperson, Anne Gonzales, told USA Today. People familiar with Healthcare.gov argue that government-run websites are necessary to conceal the IRS income data that exchanges use to calculate discounts. Obamacare is principally designed for the 48 million uninsured Americans; most enrolling will have some discount based on their age, family status, and income. To protect consumers, the government argument goes, only Healthcare.gov should have access to income data. However, there are plenty of existing federal systems that securely transmit personal information with private companies. If you use H&R Block or TurboTax to complete your tax return, you already have confidence that tech companies can safely deal with your most sensitive data. “There’s nothing new in this privacy area, nothing new that we haven’t been doing for years and years,” says Lauer. For instance, ID.me, which facilitates military veteransOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nhxGQVG3J9I/
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