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It was known long ago that the more programmers you have the longer it takes. Three guys in a room can find a problem and look up and ask the others what suggestions they have. In a large setup this takes forever, and if its more than one entity they might not want to ask. Generally programming projects which involve a lot of people and a lot of data and uncertain matches between data bases are not helped by the numbers, but by the degree of cooperation between them.
Long ago I did a small system which used three data bases. We ended up with matching data being the hardest part and extra steps. I don't want to imagine the mess with this one. We were only three people on our little team so we could say hey, I'm not sure what's up here.
Someone should dig out the book on systems design and how the standard way of doing it is counter productive and have all governmental and management people read it before they set one up.
gov splices things up and farms them out to various groups, most likely as favors owed in the form of gov contracts, and that's why it's always messy. Plus with a gov contract there is usually no reason to get things done fast or correctly since the money will stop once the job stops...so don't stop. And sometimes they hire inept people/companies because they have the right "profile". They aren't looking for the best job for the best price, it has to look good too.
My state site cracks me up...vaguely ethnic folk of all ages and sexes. LOL. I can only imagine the casting meetings and the amount of time getting that just right.
I remember hearing or reading that the O'care site has to connect with up to 200+ or some huge number of different systems in order to determine subsidy eligibility. Don't recall the exact number, and it doesn't really matter exactly what it is to demonstrate my point, which is this:
IMO, they should have built a single database that houses ALL of the necessary information. That database would get updated from all those outside sources once per day, in the middle of the night. Since all the applications with subsidies should be manually verified anyway (don't know if they are, but they should be), this would streamline the website operation and any changes that might affect your eligibility would show in the O'care system within 24 hours. It would also allow them to leave data from one source unchanged in the event that there was some problem connecting to it or importing the new data. Yes, some data might get outdated by a day or two, but the website would WORK, and it's selling health insurance, not an instant downloadable MP3 or something. The data doesn't need to be up-to-the-minute current.
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