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"Social Security Flubbed Its Rollout. No One Remembers."
The Social Security example is the one with the clearest parallel to HealthCare.gov. The federal government was facing a similarly massive undertaking. As the Social Security Bulletin recounted on the program’s 75th anniversary, “Keeping a record of each individual’s lifetime earnings was an unprecedented task, and the technology to support this Herculean effort did not even exist.” That the government did it is now seen by historians as an “amazing” accomplishment. But when snags arose, people at the time had no idea that would be the case.
An “early crisis,” recalled the Bulletin, was the “John Doe” problem: “Many employers reported earnings without providing a worker’s name or SSN [Social Security number]. The first report from the Bureau of Internal Revenue did not contain SSNs for about 12 percent of the wage items—and this rapidly increased in subsequent reports.”
An “early crisis,” recalled the Bulletin, was the “John Doe” problem: “Many employers reported earnings without providing a worker’s name or SSN [Social Security number]. The first report from the Bureau of Internal Revenue did not contain SSNs for about 12 percent of the wage items—and this rapidly increased in subsequent reports.”
Of course, in the media, nothing has changed much. The article says that Drew Pearson "stoked panic over the John Does." But...
Did the media panic force President Franklin Roosevelt to leap into action and save the day? Not exactly. As the Chair of the Board at the time said in a 1967 interview: “He wasn’t interested in it. He was bored stiff. I couldn’t have kept him interested in any of my woes. He laughed them off. That’s the only way he could survive, I suppose.”
Linky: http://ourfuture.org/20131023/social-security-flubbed-its-rollout-no-one-remembers
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