(FYI: There is a Health forum but it doesn't look like anyone's used since 2016, so I thought it might reach more ACA enrollees if I posted it into the KT)
Healthcare.gov to
Shut Down During Parts of Enrollment Period for Maintenance
WS Journal Sept. 23, 2017
(excerpted) The Trump administration plans to shut down healthcare.gov,
a website consumers use to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, for 12 hours on
nearly every Sunday of the coming ACA enrollment season.
The outages, which
the administration says are for maintenance, will occur from midnight through
noon on every Sunday other than Dec. 10. This year’s enrollment season, which
the administration has shortened to half the length of previous years, will run
from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15 for states that use the federal marketplace.
The administration has come under fire from supporters of
the ACA, who say it is taking intentional steps to undermine the law’s
performance. An agency spokeswoman, Nicole Black, said the schedule is being
provided in advance this year as a heads-up for enrollment assistants.
But critics noted that the outages are scheduled on
weekends, which they said is when consumers most often find time to browse for
health plans.
Trump also slashed the advertising budget by 90%. He also cut funding for so-called navigators, who help people sign up for coverage, by 41%.
This administration is impotent and frustrated because of it. They lose in the court of public opinion with every issue or utterance that comes out. They lack the support of their own party's legislators so they're unable to enact any laws to change what they don't like. As a result, the only avenues open to them for action are restricted to matters for which Executive Branch or agency decisions can be made.
It's really laughable. Will it turn into a death by one thousand cuts? That's more likely at this point than anything big happening.
(PS to chi - many orgs do their website/IT maintenance on weekends and often it's from Saturday night to sometime on Sunday as in this case. Just to pick two, sites I've encountered this on are Chase and PG+E, though not every weekend)
Interesting, Elmer. I haven't noticed myself. I could see if it went from midnight to 6 am but to noon every week seems deliberate.
Most of our IT maintenance happens on weekends when fewer users are impacted.
I guess it would depend on the industry or business whether users are more active on the weekends or not. The ACA website likely has heavy weekend traffic.
Exactly....weekends were when we did alpha testing. It was slower. I wasn't volunteering to work nights....I did at the bank for 3 years. My sleep schedule has been off ever since.
The person I shall not name who is the president doesn't care if people die. As long as he wins.
Chi