Your Obamacare Account…Is Unavailable
For shits and giggles, I thought I'd try my luck at applying for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act through the new exchanges that launched today. As an Arizona resident, this means a federally run exchange accessible via Healthcare.gov. I clicked "Apply Now," chose "Individuals & Families" and selected my state. After that, it proceeded bureaucratically, but functionally, enough, until I hit the page where you select your security questions for your account, and assign answers—a standard enough procedure, these days, on sites that deal with sensitive information. Except…The site didn't give me any choices for my security questions. There were pull-down menus from which to choose three question, but they didn't do a damned thing.

Click! Click! Click! Nothing. Hmmm…That's awkward.
So, I filled in three answers, anyway, and tapped "create account." Then I waited. And waited a bit more… And I received an error message: "Important: Your account couldnt be created at this time. The system is unavailable." (Missing apostrophe in the original.)

I suspect that "the system is unavailable" will sum things up rather nicely, Obamacare-wise, in the days and weeks to come.
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This is because of the shutdown, why can't you see this, mr. blame-everything-on-Obama!!!!!!!
"The exchange will open, even if the government shuts down"
It opened, just not that well.
That missing apostrophe is telling.
They had to cut corners somewhere.
Sequester.
Thank you J.D.!
But Your Obamacare Is In Another Castle!
NLK likes this.
Teathuglican hackers are taking down the sites to prevent Americans from finally finding out what's in it.
It's "Teabaggers". Am I the only one paying attention?
It's anarchteathugbeggers now.
Teanarchbagugnicans.
Or Teathuganarchbaglicans?
Anarchoteabilbobaggicanians.
Sauron would not be pleased. And by Sauron I mean Rand Paul.
They're all members of the Tealiban.
They're the meanies who don't want to sign up for affordable health care and get their free pony.
The old Florida Marlins?
Not sure if serious.
Go to HuffPo and ask them if they are serious, teabagger terrorist!
That was for Paul. I now suspect that he was funnin' us on account of the "paying attention" dogwhistle.
Not sure if serious.
Tip. Not much comes out of Paul's keyboard that's serial. there's a new guy around here who's struggling with me. I'm actually getting a kick out of him. I think he thinks I'm shrike...
I've actually been seeing a lot of the "teathuglican" thing lately.
These portmanteaus are getting right the fuck out of hand, goddammit.
Takes you back to the days of George W. Chimpymchitlerburton, dunnit?
Boom.
Easy for you to say you anarchliberthugteatarian.
Do you think a group like Anonymous or the NSA could make hay with a system like this?
Why would you plant bombs under a bridge which is going to fall down on its own?
Thank the government shutdown, TooChilly.
I think they are just conditioning people: start with requiring a wait to access the system. Train them to expect a wait to see a doctor. IN the meantime, people will die who might otherwise have lived. Money will be saved. The system will work as intended.
There's no wait for people who are dying.
Now serving customer 41,295,138 at death panel counter #5.
Weatherman has a sad
He should just kill himself, now. Save the planet.
If he really wants to reduce his carbon footprint he should just try holding breath until he stops breathing. That'll cut it to zero.
I suspect that "the system is unavailable" will sum things up rather nicely, Obamacare-wise, in the days and weeks to come.
But it's so great that we all have free healthcare now. Don't be a spoil-sport with your expectations of competence and stuff.
Did you use the recommended browser? Did they even specify a browser. In all fairness, I'd try IE with Compatibility View set on. Tools - Compatibility View Settings, then check the box for Display All Websites in compatibility view....
It only works with IE6. That's a feature, not a bug.
I seem to be unable to locate the drop down alt-text.
Via FB:
I don't quite get why websites would be down entirely. What's the cost of maintaining a server?
As sarcasmic likes to point out, it's not about the cost of that particular function but the amount of publicity created by shutting it down.
The same whether you are hosting your website, or change your website to be something that says you are closed.
Holy hell, that's hilarious... and quite telling. They didn't even have enough quality control to make sure they got their basic grammar correct on what is, in all likelihood, the most widely viewed error message in the entire system so far. That's... par for the course. I'm sure it's all because of the RETHUGLICANTEABAGGERZ!!!1!!!! governemnt shutdown.
How about "The System is Down"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILVfzx5Pe-A
http://www.wahealthplanfinder.org/
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unknown error, possibly due to misconfiguration. Contact the server administrator: webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
That's the best one yet.
The "Covered California" portal is being updated and requests that I come back tomorrow morning.