General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy is the Obamacare Healthcare.gov website so sick?
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- Loading the Healthcare.gov home page takes a very long time by the standards of other healthcare sites to download just the 59K initial HTML document, which is “probably caused by bandwidth constraints on its web server, as most of the time this is contributed to the server response time and not the network.” There’s a need to optimize the use of third-party components and make sure the initial HTML page can be served faster from the web servers.
- The registration page for the site is “actually a very bad example of some of the well-known practices of Web Performance Optimizations,” according to Compuware’s Grabner. “It seems they forgot to merge CSS and JS files together as they are currently loading about 55! Individual JavaScripts files and 11! Individual CSS files!” Compuware makes specific recommendations on how these could be merged, adding “especially because many of them actually belong logically together as well, e.g.: jQuery and JQuery Plugins.” Grabner adds that “loading too many small JS and CSS files together instead of merging them together results in “too many roundtrips to the web server.” Uncompressed versions of images is also resulting in inefficiencies for the website, he notes.
- The website’s MyProfile page revealed the “most obvious end user performance impact,” according to Compuware. “We could see a 16.8 second server response time for an AJAX call that returned some basic user information for the logged in user. The end user has to sit and wait until that AJAX request finally completes so that the page is fully operational.” Grabner’s blog adds: “What’s even more interesting is that every interaction on that MyProfile page re-sends this AJAX Request returning basically the same information again without caching it. Taking a closer look at the actual content that is returned, it seems that about 95% of the content is always the same (e.g.: name, phone number…). There is only one field in that returned JSON object that actually changes.” Compuware says caching could help optimize this part of the site’s behavior.
- Filling out an application on the site now “uses a lot of JavaScript to deal with validating input as well as presenting the results,” Grabner’s blog points out. He notes that usage of third-party JavaScript libraries is very common as it takes a lot of work off user interface developers. But sometimes this doesn’t work out well, and “looking at the JavaScript hotspots on that particular page shows some very significant hotspots by click event handlers for things like Add Deductions, Annual Income Information or simply clicking on the Accept Warning and Continue. Response times of up to 7 seconds were mainly caused by these JavaScript frameworks that iterate through the whole DOM to identify those elements that need to be modified or not.” Grabner’s blog notes that depending on the browsers JavaScript engine, this can have a significant performance impact.
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Looking at fifty locations in the U.S., such as Chicago, Dallas, Boston and the other major cities, there are “dramatic differences” in how user traffic is reaching the healthcare.gov site in Washington, Van Siclen says. “The traffic from the Midwest is five times slower than traffic from the Northeast and West,” he says. There are likely latency issues in all this that have to be studied further. Compuware APM testing remotely did not look at back-end functions, such as how internal databases or other integrated services used by Healthcare.gov were working.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/102313-healthcare-gov-275167.html?page=1
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msongs
(67,420 posts)
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I've already been beaten over the head several times by DU experts telling me they knew more about my experiences than I do and how I should believe what they tell me instead of my lyin' eyes.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)isn't everyone's experience.
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)They get it right eventually, but they have to create a giant clusterfuck first. It's not unique to the ACA website, the government does it with everything it touches. Why is anyone surprised?
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)I’ve been holding off on signing up at the state exchange since officials here (DC) said that it still had some glitches but would be ready by Nov. 1. Fine, I’ll have 1.5 months before the insurance starts to sign up instead of 2.5 – not really understanding the “OMFG the sky is falling!” crowd.
Having said that, poking around healthcare.gov did lead to some things that make you go “huh?”:
Plan can enroll in a plan in the Marketplace. For 2014, the Open Enrollment Period is October 1, 2013–March 31, 2014. For 2015 and later years, the Open Enrollment Period is October 15 to December 7 of the previous year.
I assume that someone just accidently dropped in “previous” by accident? Also, the site makes it look like if you don’t sign up during the 7-week open enrollment period, you can’t get any healthcare (inside our outside the exchange) until a year later (unless you have a qualifying life event). Is this true?
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)For example, for 2015 coverage, the enrollment period is October 15 to December 7 of 2014. You enroll in the year "previous to" the year for which you want coverage.
If you do not sign up during the enrollment period you can not get coverage through the exchange for the following year without a qualifying event, but you are not shut off from other sources. You can buy insurance at any time from any company that will sell it to you.
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)Open Enrollment for getting healthcare in 2015, not the Open Enrollment in 2015 (which would be for 2016). This part of the site:
Outside of an open enrollment period, you may not be able to buy or change health plans inside or outside the Marketplace unless you experience certain qualifying life events -- for example marriage, birth of a child, or loss of other health coverage.
Makes it sound like you can't get any health plans outside of the enrollment period (other than through qualifying life events). Or am I reading that wrong too?
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)(oops) I hit the "post" button instead of [ctrl][v] to paste text.
"you may not be able to buy or change health plans inside or outside the Marketplace"
I believe that the exchange does not permit enrollment other than during the enrollment period. Medicare does not. Most Medicare advantage and supplement plans do not. The health plan offered by my wife's employer does not.
On the other hand, if I go down to the Blue Cross office and ask to sign up for health insurance as an individual, they will happily entertain that process.
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)“The ACA does not guarantee that you will be able to get any healthcare outside of the open enrollment period. You still might be able to, but it depends on things outside of our control.”?
I also wonder how much leeway states have to say, “we’ll still cover your healthcare if you don’t sign up, but we’re going to quadruple the penalties.”
jsr
(7,712 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Former employer's health insurance was a lot better.
You have to pay a premium for Medicare part B that depends on income.
For better coverage, you have to get either a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medigap Supplement plan.
And you have to get Medicare part D, unless one of the above includes it.
jsr
(7,712 posts)and we already have an infrastructure in place that could be used.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)The only way you get to deal with one plan is to go to an insurer and get a Medicare Part C Medicare Advantage plan that includes Part D drug benefits. In which case there are multiple insurers that may provide such plans, depending on which county you live in. Locally, they have now all gone to HMOs, and POS Medicare Advantage plans are no longer available. There are also significant restrictions on which drugstores you can use for "in-network" drug copays.
