So if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can’t have a perfect iOS 7 launch, why should we expect the government to have a perfect launch of its Healthcare.gov website? That’s apparently what President Obama thinks about it. Heck, last week he said it was like online shopping, so why not throw in an Apple comparison too?
Obama talks to the press
Today is supposed to be the launch date for Obamacare and the health insurance exchanges. However, continual glitches are keeping millions from being able to register on the site. Personally, I don’t know why anyone is surprised about this. I saw this coming when they announced that the website would go live as of today’s date.
When President Obama spoke to the press today though, he drew a direct comparison between the technical glitches the government’s website has with those of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Here’s part of what he said (via TechCrunch):
“Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t. That’s not how we do things in America. We don’t actively root for failure. We get to work, we make things happen, we make them better, we keep going.”
Millions access Healthcare.gov at the same time
Obama noted that more than a million people were on Healthcare.gov before 7 a.m., which meant that five times as many people were visiting the marketplace this morning than have ever been on the Medicare.gov site at one time. He claims that the large number of people who were on the site today are supporting his law, but it’s just too early to tell if that’s the case.
How many Americans just want to know how much this new law is going to cost them? Polls leading up to the launch of Obamacare suggested a lot of mixed feelings about it. Unfortunately the longer Healthcare.gov remains glitchy, the longer it will be before Americans can make a decision about whether Obamacare is a good thing or a bad thing.
