“On Sept. 28, while a raging storm toppled trees and cut electricity to thousands of Portlanders, the idealistic troops of Cover Oregon were enduring a painful storm of their own in a quiet suburban office building south of the city.
“They had gathered on a Saturday for final testing of the state's health insurance exchange. More than a website, it was a gateway to a new era of better, more affordable, more democratic health care.
“But their high hopes turned to shock and alarm when the website didn't work. It crashed, it flashed repeated error messages, it couldn't process the most routine insurance enrollment scenario.
“A gray-faced crew from Oracle Corp., the state's primary technology contractor, looked on helplessly.
"’Shut it down,’ said Rocky King, Cover Oregon's executive director. ‘Let's not waste anybody else's time here.’"
…
“How did this happen? How did Oregon, the darling of health care reformers and the recipient of more federal exchange money than all but two other states, go from health care pioneer to national laggard?”
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2013/12/oregon_health_exchange_technol.html
Answer: Like the administration in Washington, D.C., handing out hundreds of millions of dollars, Oregon’s quote leaders unquote figured: We’re the government. When we say it will happen, it will happen.
Link from “Hocus Pocus” at http://www.stumptownblogger.com/
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