In the year 2009, President Obama set rolling a project that was meant to help save the lives of the poor Americans who suffer and due to the fact that they cannot afford quality health care in the hospitals. The president promised the Americans that the project has been well designed with all the requirements to ensure its completion factored in. The project involved providing the Americans with Affordable individual health, low income health insurance, free medical insurance to the needy, affordable family health plan and health care plans to the citizens of the United States (Davidson, 2013). The important aspect of this project is that it was to utilize the use of technology in provision of its services. The project required that Americans will be installed with chips into their bodies to enhance the delivery of the services making it efficient. But, five years later no substantial progress has been noted regarding this project. The technological part of it is lagging behind with the project encountering many problems.
In order for technology to implement in area, the existing population should have embraced and accepted it. Technology diffusion occurs due to the fact that people expect change that they can associate with. When it came to the Obama Care project, the technology to be used is still new hence was rejected by many. Not many people were for the idea of chips being installed inside their bodies. They saw this as a way by which the government can be monitoring their ways. The government so far has done little or nothing to sensitize the people that this technology is harmless and its intention is pure (Tantillo; 2014, January 1). The government should have placed measures to sensitize people of the importance of the project in order to gain support from its citizens.
As the project required the services to be offered online also, an official website was opened. This website is to help the citizens of America to view their medical status online and to book for appointments and drugs online. This means that the program was also focused on ensuring that the congestion in hospitals and pharmacies are reduced. This has not been the case, it has been reported severally that the website cannot handle the huge number of users at some time. This has caused the website to be slow at times and not responding at all when one is trying to connect. This means that the function it is to perform is not being performed at all. The government knows of the problem but little has been done to correct this. In fact, only two to three other websites have been opened o enable the users to access these services from other areas. This is of little help as the same problem is still observed. The best cause of action regarding the use of this type of technology would have been to anticipate a greater customer turn out. This would have helped the government to plan that there could be chances of congestions on the website, with these; various websites should have been opened for the many States that do exist in the country. These would have eased congestions in these websites greatly enabling the services to be offered effectively.
The Application of a new technology is an expensive project. If one is planning to install a new technology, all factors should be considered and they include cost of installation. As we all know, the cost associated with installation is always great and the funds need to have been identified and should be from a viable source. With the Affordable Care Act, there was an issue with the funding. It could be seen that people would complain to the fact the government should take large loans to employ such a project that they deemed as ‘prestigious’. The project should be employed with money from the government and not from loans. Making matters worse, the government had not anticipated a large initial capital outlay. This means that the funds that they had planned for were exceeding their budgetary allocation (Davidson, 2013). The government needed to step in and assure the citizens that all is fine and the problems is under control. This was not the case as it caused panic all-round the country making the legislators pass a motion to over-throw the bill. The government could have resolved this issue in the planning stage. Proper research should have been conducted so as to determine the accurate amount in dollars to be need for the funding of such a project. Also, the government should have acquired viable funding that could have shown the public that indeed the project is a viable one and can be installed with no difficulty on the government’s side.
One thing that caused the failure of the project could be seen to be communication. Lack of proper communication between the president and his legislators caused panic in the country. Most of the American Citizens were not and are still not aware of what the Affordable Care Act states and the services it has introduced. There have been speculations and rumors of the negativity of the projecting creating a negative attitude towards. The president also could be seen not performing his functions properly. As the initiator of the project, he is needed to have rallied for support from his congress men by informing them of the specific involve in the project. However, this has not been the case, it could be noticed that there is breakdown in the communication chain in the Whitehouse. The president could even be seen standing alone when it comes to supporting of the project at times as not all his allies understand the project as he does.
If I were placed in-charge of the project at this very time, little can be done to help salvage the project. The best strategy would be re-considered all the options and take the project back to the planning stage. This will enable proper planning and proper introduction into the market. As customer support is essential for any product to succeed, there is need for the project to be consumer-sensitized six months before entry into the market. This will give the consumers knowledge of the product. The communication channels need to be opened up to allow free flow of communication.
It was noted that the program faced three major issues; these are lack of proper communication among the superiors, lack of proper sensitization of the public and lack of good planning in terms of finance. In order to combat all these three problems at once, there will be need of the project to be taken back to the drawing board. This will help the managers plan efficiently all the factors to be considered and measure the variables accurately.
I will consider this approach as the problems are to be ambiguous to be dealt with specifically as they may cause other problems. Also, it can be noticed that the problems are mostly as a result of planning errors. Hence the best way to counter the problems would be by taking them back to the drawing board and coming up with a good plan.
References
10 Reasons Obamacare is (and will continue to be) a Failure. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://usconservatives.about.com/od/healthcare-issues/tp/10-Reasons-Obamacare-Is-and-Will-Continue-To-Be-A-Failure.htm
Davidson, S. M. (2013). A new era in U.S. health care: Critical next steps under the Affordable Care Act.
Kroenke, D., & Hatch, R. A. (2011). Management information systems. New York: Mitchell McGraw-Hill.
Tantillo, J. (2014, January 1). Marketing is causing ObamaCare’s problems. Fox News.
