Comparing Plans--More Horrible Interface Design

It's been a few days since I posted. It was more fun keeping up on the government shutdown than comparing plans. And since I got to the point where I have to choose, I figured some of the pressure was off.

Last night as I was watching the final passage of the final deals, I logged into healthcare.gov again. I was able to log in but not able to continue my application. This morning I tried again and got in without any issues.

So, for the first time I decided to use the little Compare check box. You can see it checked in the picture below.

It seems like it would be a nice feature. You scroll through the long list of similarly named plans with small but significant differences. And you see one you'd like. So you click Compare.

Seems useful, right? I mean, that's why there's a list of dozens of plans--to compare the differences, right.

But, what should be a useful feature is made super annoying by this:

Yes, the designers of this page, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the user needs to be told that the plan whose Compare check box I just checked has been added to my compare list. I just added it, I don't need you to tell me--just show the check mark in the check box! But, that's not why this design decision is so horrible. No. If all it did was tell I did what I just asked it to do, that would be annoying, but not enough to get me to write a post about it. No, it does something worse.

The designers of this page decided that the best way to notify me that I did what I just did is to scroll to the top of the screen to the navigation bar to put the notification on the navigation bar! Hey, why not just go through the stack of books on my nightstand and slip all the book marks, while you're at it? Ugh! Now I have to go through that whole list again--the list of similarly named plans with small differences that might be significant. Yeah, make me lose my place each time I want to add a plan to the compare list because some moron knows nothing about UI design.

Grrr...

Anyway, if you click the compare region at the top, you get this screen:

I have 4 plans that I chose to compare for this preliminary comparison. I'll add more later. I have a big enough screen that I can certainly see more than 3 if the site is willing to show me more than 3. But, it looks like 3 is the limit.

Enrollment To Do List: A Case Study in Awful Page Design

This is the page you'll get to some time after your eligibility is done. Behold it in its glorious horror.

I mentioned the issue with the page in a previous post, but this post will focus on this page.

First, there is an orange bar telling me I have some outstanding issue. It provides a link. Here is the page that appears when I click that link:

I redacted some gobblety-gook just in case it contains information that might allow a hacker to get into my account. I left enough to show how ugly it is, though.

So, back the the Enroll To Do list.

There are 4 steps. You can see that I completed the first step because it has a check and a button that would allow me to change my answers. All this step did for me was ask if I smoke.

The last 2 steps are locked because you can only work on one step at a time.

My complaint with this screen is how you perform the next step. On most of the web site, the mouse pointer is the little arrow. When you mouse over a button, like the button shown which says "CHANGE", the mouse pointer turns into a little hand with an extended index finger. It also turns into the hand with the index finger when you mouse over a clickable link, such as the Application Details link or the Explain this task links shown above.

Now, on the right of the step, there is a green area with the word SET. When you mouse over SET, it just turns into the cursor which would appear if you wanted to select text for copying. It's just the plain arrow in the green area. Nothing indicates that this is an area where you can click to make something happen.

But, that's exactly what it is. It's a clickable area. It's not a button. It's not a link. And the word "SET" is near meaningless.

This is just one poorly designed page. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in the cubicle of the designer trying to explain this design to their peers and superiors.

Window Shopping Now Available

According to TPM.com, you can now Window shop. Way to add a feature just after I'm done needing it, HHS!

But, seriously, this is a good thing. I definitely want to window shop on plans in Washington state since I intend to move there. If you can't shop without creating an account and your account has to be for the state in which you need insurance, that made it hard to see what's out there for states where you want insurance.

So, it's not exactly too little, too late, but it would have nice a week ago. And it's a step I applaud.

I'm Eligible. Now What?

I did all the applying in a separate Chrome window. I remember a button about continuing to enrollment. But when I went back to my other window and logged into the account, I had no clue how to get that button again. The application is listed as in progress. There is a link to download the eligibility PDF. But there was nothing that showed me what to do to shop for insurance.

Fortunately, the tab with the Continue to Enrollment button was still open. I had that Session Expiring dialog and I'm not sure if my session was expired. I had to blast through a few error messages, but got to the point here it showed me some steps. I told it I don't smoke.

I should have taken a screen shot. There are no buttons, but there are green areas with the word "SET" in if you click in that area, you activate the step. I don't what universe the designer of this screen came from. But oh well.

So now I'm to the plan page. It says I have 0 plans to choose from. Time to call it a night.

The Modal Dialog From Hell

Some modal dialog boxes are horrible. I don't know if this one is from Chrome or from healthcare.gov. Either way, it's bad.

If you don't know what a modal dialog box is, it's a dialog box that you have to deal with before you can continue using an applications. There a lot of them. The Open and Save dialog boxes are usually modal. They require you to find or name a file before they let you continue with the application you are using.

A web session is a way of connecting stuff you do on the internet when you do them close together in time. Web pages are stateless, so a web session allows pages to store data for later pages to use. On the healthcare.gov site, once you have logged in, a session is started. After a half hour, the session starts to timeout. But it warns you first. With this:

I use Chrome and as soon as this thing comes up, I have to click OK or Cancel before I can do anything. In any tab. It takes me to this no matter what I'm doing. If I have another application on top, I can't even click on Chrome in the Windows Task Bar to bring Chrome to the front because answering this question takes precedence. I even had trouble maximizing a minimized Chrome because of this horrible dialog box.

If you have let your healthcare.gov session sit for 25 minutes unused in a tab in Chrome, you've probably encountered this, too.

Starting Over From Scratch: Success!!!!!

My previous post shows how I finally got to the end. The success is described there. I just wanted a blog post title that says I succeeded.

Now, I'm going to go look at my options.... I hope....

Starting Over From Scratch: Doing The Application

OK, I just made the second account, and it's time to take it for a spin. This time, I'll not toy with asking for financial assistance. That might be what things so mucked up the last time. This is going to follow the basic flow I described in the earlier post about one cycle. In this page, I'll just highlight differences and interesting tidbits of information.

But first, let me point out that the website is right now much more responsive. It does, in fact, get more responsive every day. That is a good thing. Like a traffic jam, it will eventually let people through and they won't need to access these choke points anymore.

The first screen is just some text and a check box. The second page is that page I despise with a white hot passion because it always defaults with my preferred address and phone number handled stupidly. I have one address and one phone number. I want them to leave the check box checked rather than uncheck it and copy the information into secondary alternate addresses and phone numbers.

Same with the email address. This was one of those times were I checked the "Use my email address" check box, and it populated the first email address box, and it complained about the second one being empty.

They asked me if I want to use the email address they know about, but still want me to confirm it... Grrr.... I am convinced that there are different servers with different versions of validation software. That's just bad. Anyway.... I'm happily going along when I get this:

Again, there is progress. This has an error message. Exception in calling Save Insurance Application data service. I just decide to click the green "Save & Continue" button and let the chips fall where they may.

I mentioned that I used to get a separate question about being an Pacific Islander or Alaskan or something. It must be this. I haven't seen this dialog box in a while, but up it popped.

OK, the Pacific Islander part was wrong. But this is the screen. If I have problems on this account, I wonder if I'll see this screen again... I get closer and closer to the furthest most point I've ever gotten.

There used to be 4 of these boxes I had to check. Now there are 2. I'm really beginning to think that my database entry was corrupted on the old account. It had stuff about Medicaid, but this one doesn't. I click Save & Continue. Then I get the electronic signature box. In my excitement, I noticed it was different from the electronic signature box from the old account. This is the old account one:

Notice how the text above the part with the electronic signature doesn't really look like something an attorney wrote? Well, the one I had to sign today did. It had all that I swear that this stuff is true and accurate and yadda yadda yadda. Much more appropriate for an electronic signature. It also didn't have the gray button, I believe. So I pressed whatever I needed to and waited......

And I FINALLY got results? How happy am I? I wrote the word "finally" in all caps which I detest! That's how happy I am!

OK, let's view. It turns out, that the View Eligibilty Result makes me download a PDF.

So I download it. My computer came with Nuance PDF viewer installed and I've never bothered to change it to Adobe, but Nuance chokes and shows me nothing more than a page with Health Insurance Marketplace header and footer and a blank page.

So, I installed Adobe Reader XI and that didn't choke. I see that I am eligible. I now know what the Dec 15 deadline I've hearing about it. Your insurance doesn't start right away--it starts on the first of the month if you enroll on or before the 15th of the previous month. Obviously, it doesn't start before 2014, but there is that lag, I suppose to deter people who think they can sign up online from their phone en route to the hospital.

But, the take away from this long post:

1. If you have problems, create a new account and start over
2. Blow through error messages like they never even appeared
3. But don't listen to me if you want financial aid because I skipped all that

Starting Over From Scratch: Creating A Second Account

Since the agent at the healthcare.gov phone bank suggested creating a new account when she informed me that they can't delete applications in progress, I thought I'd try that.

I started the process of creating an account. I thought I'd see what happens when I use the same email address. After the 3 screens, Contact Info, Username, Security Questions, I clicked the green button to create my account.

No go. It's probably because the email is already in use. Of course, it would be nice if they said that. But, hey, probably some HIPA thing.  So, try a different email address.

OK, that worked. I got an email and clicked the link in the email.

Yay! I have an account. Continue....

Ummmmm..... Yeah.... Well, let's see what happens if I just click I Accept.

OK, not looking good. But I've these sorts of errors all over healthcare.gov. I'm not going to let this phase me. I eventually get in to a clean looking screen without a big red error box. And what does it want me to do? It wants me to verify my identity. OK, let's get this overwith!

And I answer those and click Continue.

Oh, red error box, will you continue to dog me the whole time? Has my identity been verified or not?

Well, there's the answer to that question. But it has a link to Verify Now. Hey, let's try again:

And I hold my breath, knock on wood, and click Continue.

Gasp! Could it be true? I checked my profile, and indeed, there was a little green check under my name saying identity verified.

So I have successfully created a second account and gotten verified. Time to see what happens when I apply.

Are Account Usernames Case Sensitive?

If there's one thing that seems like a bad idea, it's case sensitive usernames. I mean, JohnSmith and johnsmith are 2 different accounts? No, that's just bad. I had thought I saw that usernames were case sensitive, but when I look at my profile, I saw that my username was shown in all caps.

So, naturally, I tried logging in with incorrect case. And I got in. I must have been mistaken when I saw that. But, I decided to start making a second account and got to the page where I make my username and voila!!!!

See that text under the Username box? It says:

The username is case sensitive. Choose a username that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _@/-

I added the italics. Ah ha! I did see that! I'm not going crazy. (Well, I am going crazy, but I did see that!)

But, despite what it says here, and based on experimentation and observing that your username is shown in all caps, the answer is no, the username is not case sensitive.

Can I Delete My 'In Progress' Application And Start Over?

I'm on hold. I called 1-800-318-2596 and got to an agent in seconds. I had 2 goals with this phone call:
Find out if I can by the error when I try to go do ID proofing on the phone
Find out if I can delete my application and start over since that is always one way to fix things

She didn't sound confident that she would any more successful than me in getting past the ID proofing problem. So onto goal number 2. She didn't know the answer off hand. There is nothing on the application list page that would let me delete an application. But maybe they have a way at 1-800-318-2596. Well, it doesn't sound like they have an easy way to delete because she didn't know the answer and contacted some internal group called ISG.She in now on hold with them, so I'm on hold with her. She said she would be on hold for about 12 minutes, and asked if I wanted to wait. Sure.

I'm listening to the hold music fade in and out on speaker phone while I type this up.

........

OK, she came back. ISG says that I can't delete an application once it's in progress, but I can create another account and try that. Hmmmm..... That's for another post....

Why I Can't See My Options Now

Some of the regular websites I visit have been posting on the healthcare.gov debacle. They don't really get into the type of detail I get into on the specific operation of screens, but they do get into other aspects.

My favorite blogger, of course, is Andrew Sullivan. His latest post is about the reason I can't just see my options. I had sort of surmised this reason when it became clear that the web site wasn't going to let me shop until it knew everything about me. The reason is that the price will depend on the income of the insured and they wanted to make sure that the price they showed each shopper already included any subsidies they are eligible for. But, that means that all sorts of state and federal agencies have to get involved before you can even see your plans.

In my case, I am trying to submit an application where I don't ask for financial help. But I may have submitted y first try where I thought I'd see if I'm eligible for subsidies. It's possible that if I had done that first, I wouldn't be having these problems. But I don't know. I don't know anything because nobody is explaining to anyone how all this works. Anyway, here is Andrew's post.

What If Save And Return Later Rather Than Save And Continue to ID Proofing?

I got up early because I have chemo later today. Remember this screen?

As I mentioned in my last post, I've never used that green button, only the gray one. And every time I use the gray one, it errors out and kicks me back to the beginning. But what if I try the green button? Maybe that will lock in all the progress up to this point, and I can reload from this point every time and just do the ID proofing without starting over from scratch like I have done about 10 times now.

So, I tried that button so you don't have to. And, the results are...

It acts the same way. I got locked out of my session as when it errors out and I try to use the back button and restore the previous state, which never works. So, it acts as if I had pressed the gray button and crashed. My only choice was to close the browser tab and log in on a new tab. And once I got back to the home screen I was faced with this:

In conclusion, having tried that "Return and Save For Later" green button, I can say, don't use it. All it does is throw away the work you just did. It's as useless as the Live Chat.

How One Failure Cycle Works With Screenshots of Selected Screens

Since my failure experience is repeatable, I loaded a screen shot extension into Chrome and went through the process to get screens I wanted to comment on. By the way, I really like the Screen Shot (by Google) Extension. It lets you take screen shots of parts of screens, easily redact information, and easily annotate information.

So, here we go....

This is the landing screen. I can see my profile or my applications. As you can see, I have an application that is "in progress". What would I like to do? Why I'd be delighted to view my current application.

And voila! It says:

You haven't finished your application for health coverage. You must complete and submit your application to find out if you're eligible for coverage and to enroll into a plan.

Well, from that, it's apparent that the ball is in my court. I have not yet submitted my application, even though I have, in fact, been told I have submitted it like 10 times so far. The only choice seems to be Continue Application. The first screen is just a check box and Save and Continue. Nothing interesting.

OK, this one is long. It is my contact information. I hate this screen. Every time this screen shows up, it shows me defaults and the option to use the defaults or override them. It asks "Is this your home address?" but then selects "no" and fills in the "Home address" section. So I go back and check the "Is this your home address?" check box.

Then it does the same idiocy with the phone number. I tell it that the phone number they have is my prefered phone number.

Then it does the same idiocy for how I want to be reached. I am an internet savvy guy so I want to be reached by my email account. So I check the perennially unchecked "Use this email address: (my redacted email address). When I check that, it fills in the email field. Then, there is a, perhaps, 1 in 3 chance that it will want me to fill it in again in the "Re-enter email address" field. Yikes! Sometimes it wants that, sometimes it doesn't? Are there different servers with different validation policies and I'm randomly assigned to them? Or what? That's just insane!

But soon enough I'm done correcting the stupidest page in the history of government healthcare. Or am I?

No! I am not. Because it needs clarification on my address. I annotated this screen shot. Basically what has happened is that I gave it an address and it found a "different" address that it thinks I live at. What's the "difference"?

Well here are the differences:

1. My address is normal mixed case; theirs is ugly ALL CAPS
2. My address has the 5 digit ZIP code; they show all 9 digits
3. My address spells out "Drive"; theirs abbreviates it "DR"

So I select my address because I despise ALL CAPS. I grumble that their sameness algorithm is stupid and press Continue. I think there are few boring screens before getting to this boring one:

I don't really know why I took a screen shot of this. I guess just to show that I'm only applying for myself. The next one may be the next one.

As I said in earlier posts, I tried to go through this using Yes the first time, but decided that my life is good enough and I can deal with the payments even though I'm eligible for help from Uncle Sam.

So soon enough I get to this screen:

My issue with this screen is that sometimes my SSN already appears and sometimes it doesn't. It should either consistently appear or always require me to enter it. I shouldn't be able to use whether it appears or not to decide if the Green Bay Packers get to choose whether to kick-off or receive. Also, I'm not sure what the name on my SS card is. I don't have it handy--it's in storage. I use my passport for ID. I do have a middle name and it may or may not be on my SS card. But it's not like my name changed as the result of a marriage or adoption or legal name change--it just, at worst, is missing the middle name.

Before long, I'll get to the race screen.

It never populates this. I suppose it doesn't store this data in the database, but just in session variables? The first few times I did this, it asked be separately after this screen if I was Pacific Islander or Native Alaskan or something. It doesn't do that anymore.

Anyway, getting close to the end.

I have to give my electronic signature, which I guess is just my name. At least, that's what I put in there.

I want you to notice something about this screen that puzzles me. There are two buttons. One is green and one is gray. To me, if I see two buttons and they are different colors, I tend to think that the color means something. Green almost always means "valid" or something like that. Gray often translates into "not yet valid" or "disabled" or something like that. I've been to this screen about 10 times, but I've never clicked the green button to see what would happen. That might be a blog post for tomorrow while I'm getting my maintenance chemotherapy. I've only ever clicked on the gray button, even though it's gray.

The text says:

You have started an application for health coverage, but have not yet completed ID proofing. Without completing ID proofing, you cannot submit your application for an eligibility determination. We need more information from you to establish your identity. We might ask you to submit copies of identification documents.
Click Save and Continue to ID Proofing to start the process.

So I need the next step to work, apparently, if my application is to be entered. When I click the ominously gray button, I get this:

It says:

We've reveived your application as of 10/9/2013
We will provide eligibility results after establishing identity.

As you can see, there is nothing on this dialog box to save. There are 2 ways to dismiss it, I think. I could click the X in the upper right hand corner. Or I could click the green Save & Continue button. I'm puzzled again. Are they different? I'm not clear on why I would click one and not the other. I want to continue even though there is nothing to save, so I have only ever clicked the green button and never the X. At this point I can see that the address bar in Chrome goes to a web page containing the text "IDProofingGetStarted" but after a second or so, it errors out, perhaps with "Unexpected Error". Then, without fail, it will go back to the My Profile page.

So the thing I want you to notice on the My Profile page is that my name has, right under it, a little green check that says "Identity verified". So healthcare.gov knows that I am who I say I am, yet it pukes at the very moment it goes to ensure I am who I say I am. Over and over and over.

This is the highlight reel of one of my attempts to apply for health insurance. I have been through this about 10 times. The reason I made his page is that I have to try to google and haven't found anyone else trying to document their experiences to see if they are having the same kinds of trouble as I am.

If I could have anything, I would just ask that I be informed when the ID verification part of the process works properly. That's all I ask. I'm wasting my time trying to use it if that doesn't work. I just want to know when that one part is functioning properly.

The Endless Loop

Sometimes, I can get in. Sometimes, not. Sometimes, healthcare.gov is down for maintenance.

But, when I get in, there is a certain point I can get to. I get to the place that looks like that last step. I click Save and Continue to ID Proofing, then Save and Continue on a dialog box, and then BAM! kicked back to my profile after the red error box temporarily shows, perhaps, "Unexpected Error".

The thing is, it says:

Almost finished....
We've received your application as of 10/9/2013
We will provide eligibility results after establishing identity

So, is my application in or not? When I go back to my landing page, it says it is in progress. When I click on the application it says:

Your application is incomplete
You haven't finished your application for health coverage. You must complete and submit your application to find out if you're eligible for coverage and to enroll into a plan.

So, did they get my application? Or not? I have been through this loop about 10 times. Each cycle takes about 20 minutes because there are so many screens and the screens are so slow.

So I called 1-800-318-2596 to ask. I called them once yesterday and twice today. Each time, my frustration level and expectation was a little different. So I'll explain each one.

/rant on
By the way, I have tried the live chat option a number of times. The online chat feature of healthcare.gov is excellent for anyone who doesn't already know that you should try to access the site on off peak hours or wait a few days. For anyone with a real question, it is completely useless. Why they have humans, I don't know. All that needs to be done is sending the boilerplate text to all users who attempt to use it.
/rant off

Yesterday, I saw on CNN (why does my Dad watch that network?) that they can sign you up over the phone. Excellent. All I want is to get past that verify ID thing so I can see my plans. I called and got a woman who said she'd connect me to Experian. The line got cut off while I was on hold. F*** it.

This morning, I decided to try again after another round of getting to end and getting errored out when I tried to verify my ID. She said we could make a new application but she couldn't get my data, so I decided to try again later.

Later I called and got, for the first time, a woman who was willing to tell me what other people are experiencing. That is part what I want to know. Are other people getting to my point and crashing? Is anyone getting past that? Is nobody getting past that? If nobody is, I'd like to know to stop wasting my time.

She told me that the application appears to have been submitted but now it has to be examined and I should wait for an email. But she also thought that I should have gotten an email from them already. I explained that I got to the point where it said my application had been submitted but that I always got an error on the next button click. In the end, she thinks that the application is, in fact, submitted.

Finally, I decided to ask the live chat. After getting the boilerplate bullshit, I asked the guy if I would have gotten an email if my application was actually successfully submitted. It was a yes/no question, but he said "You are correct, sir" which I took to mean that I would have gotten an email. When I asked if there was a way I could delete my application and start over, I got the boilerplate BS about trying during off peak hours or waiting and apologizing for my inconvenience while they work to improve the system.

Detour: Does Experian Really Think I Bought Pet Insurance?

So, my attempt to buy insurance was thwarted because of an error generated when it tried to Experian to verify that I am who I say I am. I remembered that "Our records indicate that you bought pet insurance in the past 2 years." It didn't say "You may have bought pet insurance". It didn't say "If you bought pet insurance". It said, "Our records indicate that you purchased pet insurance". These guys have my SSN and they said that.

Since I have no pets and certainly didn't buy pet insurance, I called 1-800-318-2596 which is the healthcare.gov phone line. Amazingly, I was talking to a human within seconds.

I told her about the pet insurance question and asked if healthcare.gov would ask trick questions like that when trying to verify my identity or should I investigate the possibility of identity theft. She said she didn't think that they would ask a trick question and said that Experian was the company to contact since they are ones doing the identity verification.

So I googled Experian and found experian.com is their site. I could create an account for $1. Sure why not. I created an account and once made, I rooted around and found nothing resembling anything resembling a purchase, let alone a pet insurance purchase.

So I called them. It turns out that I was dealing not with Experian but freecreditreport.com (like in the commercials). But after a half hour chat with the lady on the phone, we created a dispute to get some number I needed and than she had me call the real Experian. I called and soon was talking with someone from the dispute section.

I explained that I was told that Experian's records indicate that I bought pet insurance in the past 2 years and that I didn't have a pet and didn't buy insurance and that the woman at healthcare.gov said she didn't think they asked trick questions.

The Experian woman refused to acknowledge the word "trick question" but said that they ask questions designed to elicit a certain response. I made it clear that the wording of the question made it sound like I could be the victim of identity theft. She just kept repeating that elicit a certain response thing and saying that "trick question" isn't in her vocabulary.

So, I decided that it was a trick question and that Experian's records did not indicate I bought pet insurance.

Then I went back to their website where I discovered that canceling the account required a phone call. I wanted to cancel, otherwise they'd charge me $15/month for this stupid account. I called the number and allowed the woman to try to convince me to stay, but I finally got the thing canceled.

It was worth $1 to find out my credit score (798!) and waste their time.

My Adventure Up To Now

Like many Americans, I started early--shortly after midnight on October 1, 2013. I didn't get very far. For the first couple of days I kept running into the problem that many people ran into--I had to create answers for 3 security questions, but the drop down boxes that should contain the questions I can choose to answer were blank.

Eventually, that got fixed and I was finally able to create an account. Yay!

Then it came time to start applying. I answered questions, fairly straight-forwardly until I got to the part where it asked if I want assistance paying.

Here's my situation: I am currently not working and not really able to work until my treatment is all done. I suppose I could do something, but my interview suit doesn't fit, and I don't want to work in small town Wisconsin. I am living with my Dad so my expenses are rather low. My plan is to just finish up my treatment and return to Seattle where I can get a job in my field again.

But, while I'm in Wisconsin, I won't be employed. So I thought I'd see if I could get a subsidy. I told it what my income was and what I expected to make in 2014, but the site lost track of that amount and went off just the small amount from savings and investments.

As part of that, I had to answer some questions. These questions came from Experian, I think. One of the questions was what kind of car did I buy in 1999 and one said, "Our records indicate that you purchased pet insurance within past 2 years. What is the name of the pet?" or something worded like that. It had 4 pet names and "none of the above".

At the end, it said that my identity verification failed and crashed out.

After that, I decided that I wouldn't request help paying for the health insurance. I'll just pay it like I do now. I have no income now, but my career when I do work is successful and I'm not hurting as bad as a lot of other people in Wisconsin--especially the small town where I live where nobody makes any money even though they all work pretty damn hard.

But the point I wanted to make is that I almost got to the end--where I had to verify my ID before crashing.

Web Design

I intend to talk about my experience on the healthcare.gov website for signing up in the state of Wisconsin. So I suppose I should go a little into my knowledge of web design. Do I know what I'm talking about or am I like the elderly person trying to figure out how to buy bananas at the new fangled self-checkout at the grocery store.

I am an electrical engineer who specializes in embedded systems. I do software design and coding and I troubleshoot hardware. In new hardware, sometimes the bug is not in the software but in the hardware. I can find that. I have worked on a number of devices with embedded web servers and their web pages. The first one was all HTML served by embedded web servers and running RTOS's not familiar to the lay public but familiar to embedded people. The last one was Linux running Apache and we used CGIs, JSON and JQuery and all the modernest web doo-hickies.

So I know that much. I know very little about web design, user experience with focus groups, aesthetics, connecting to databases like mysql or oracle (which I gather they use since one of my error messages was from Oracle). And I know nothing about high volume web site design and load balancing on multiple servers.

So that's where I am. I have a sort of educated but peripheral understanding of web sites.

My Position on ObamaCare AKA PPACA

Right now the government is shut down because a faction of the GOP feels so strongly that ObamaCare will destroy America, that they are willing to do it first.

OK, I'm being a little facetious. But you probably figured out where I stand on the emotionally charged issue of the PPACA. I'm for it. Or, the extent to which I'm against it, it's because I want a single payer system and I want it detached from employers because I think that switching jobs shouldn't cause switching health plans and doctors.

Politics is the art of the possible and President Obama did what was possible. He didn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good--or the adequate. I think he was counting on a future where Congress would help tweak imperfections in the law, but Congress instead has gone nuts and wants no part of fixing it because they just want to destroy it.

Health insurance and flood insurance both have something in common. It's hard for the free market to sell health insurance plans because the cost structure of the event of getting sick often has significant future costs. If I get diabetes today, I might get limbs amputated in a decade. The cost is not yet incurred, but the insurance company sees it on the horizon. Flood insurance is similar--if I get flooded today and rebuild in the same spot, the insurance company will be wary about continuing to insure me because I'm still in a known flood zone. Private insurance has left the flood insurance market to the federal government for this reason. But, while not everyone builds in a flood zone, anyone can get sick.

Another problem with the free market system is that emergency rooms are required to take all comers regardless of ability to pay. In fact, Mitt Romney, during his campaign, kept saying that this is an alternative to getting health insurance. As if I can stroll into the emergency room and get chemotherapy.

An economist will tell you that the free market allocates resources efficiently. But it does it amorally. I don't mean immorally--I mean without regard to moral principles. A free market outcome might be moral or it might be immoral. The mechanism of the market takes price and demand into account, not moral judgments. That is why we have regulation. Regulation is designed to prevent immoral outcomes. Now, there are a bunch of people in the GOP who live by Ayn Rand's ideas. Her idea is basically that the outcomes of the free market, by virtue of being efficient, are therefore always moral. And any regulation interferes with efficiency, hence reduces the morality of the outcome. The most moral outcome is the most efficient as defined by the totally unregulated free market. If you can't afford insurance, well, you should have made better decisions in life and it's not the responsibility of anyone else to save you from your poor decisions. Just die already! That's why when Paul Ryan was asked if he preferred Ayn Rand's teachings or Jesus's teachings, he had to pretend he preferred Jesus's teachings.

Anyway, that's where I stand. I probably offended some readers. Oh well. Emotions are running high.

I Need Insurance In Wisconsin

Hi, I am Mark and I need insurance.

I have insurance right now, but that wasn't always the case. I was uninsured when I came down with a little case of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in early 2011. Fortunately, in Wisconsin, there is an insurance plan called HIRSP. It is for high risk people and you can get it even if you have a preexisting condition.

After jumping through a few hoops, I was finally able to sign up for the federal version of HIRSP. That is what I have right now. But, the point of HIRSP is to bridge people over to Jan 1, 2014 when insurance would be available on the exchanges. So, a few days ago I got the official termination notice saying that HIRSP would cease to exist.

That means, I want to sign up for a health plan on healthcare.gov. This blog is just about my attempt to do that. I'll catch you up on what I've done and keep you posted on what happens next. I'll do all this until I have insurance purchased on the exchange. So sit back, enjoy, and if you are healthy, count your blessings.