The 'Glitch' Blame Game
Consider the following qualification rules for different Obamacare plans.
If income < 20k then Plan-1
If income >= 20k and < 50k then Plan-2
If income < 30 k and net worth > 150 k and single then Plan-2
But what about this applicant?

Client: unemployed, single, net worth > 150 k and income < 20 k
Since income is < 50 k the client qualifies for Plan-1 or Plan-2. Since income < 20 k client qualifies for Plan-1. Since net worth > 150k and single and unemployed the client qualifies for Plan-2. The computer system will then freeze - probably from stack overflow.
In actuality the qualification rules for various different plans are much more complex than the example above and inconsistency is very hard to track -especially when rules refer to other rules ("as per", "subject to", "as qualified by") as is standard fare for legalese. Moreover, several different programmers will be coding different sections of the rules. And the blame lies then with whom?
FOLLOW US ON
Recent Articles
- The Death of the Center-Left in America
- ‘Make Peace, You Fools! What Else Can You Do?’
- When Nuclear Regulation Goes Awry
- The Danger of Nothing
- A New Pope With Courage
- Not in Kansas Any More
- Democrats Dying on the Most Desolate Hills
- If She’s an Astronaut … I’m a Jet Fighter Pilot
- Is the Jihadist Trojan Horse Winning?
- Who Has the Best American Autobiography?
Blog Posts
- The eight narrative fallacies that drive American politics
- Summertime reality twisted into climate exasperation
- Life discovered on a distant planet?
- The answer is not blowing in the wind
- Letitia James: it's either/or
- Harvard elitism meets Donald Trump
- The GEC is finally more than mostly dead
- We're not the same
- Hillary ‘the Russia Hoaxer’ Clinton wants to imprison people for ‘propaganda’
- Rep. Jamie Raskin threatens foreign leaders who cooperate with President Trump, 'when we come back to power — and we will'
- Maybe we need more living versions of “Hillbilly Funerals”
- A female fencer's courage is partly rewarded
- Democrats' Cloward-Piven default
- A New Mexico judge resigned over allegations that he kept a Tren de Aragua member in his home
- The Pope’s death is leading to yet more anti-Israel and anti-Trump propaganda