Costs Soared in Canada For Health Care Computer System

[From article]
“We were working in a very very nimble hyper-consumer-focused way,” explained Todd Park, the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew and all-nighters … and, you know, idealism. That kind of led to the magic that was produced.”
[. . .]
I think we can all agree that Barack Obama is hipper than all other government leaders anywhere, ever, combined.
[. . .]
the magicians of Obamacare eventually conceded that, on their supposedly HIPAA-compliant database, deep in the “information architectural process” is a teensy-weensy little bit of “source code” that reads, “You have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication of any data transmitted or stored on this information system.”
[. . .]
if Obama thinks nothing of tapping Angela Merkel’s cellphone (as she had cause to complain to him Wednesday, in what was said to be a “cool” conversation, and not in the hepcat sense), why would he extend any greater privacy rights to your Auntie Mabel?
Incidentally, do you think we need a congressional oversight committee to look into the effectiveness of congressional oversight committees?
[. . .]
The witness who coughed up the intriguing tidbit about Obamacare’s exemption from privacy protections was one Cheryl Campbell of something called CGI. This rang a vague bell with me. CGI is [. . .] a Canadian corporate behemoth.
[. . .]
it proved impossible to “improve” CFIS (the Canadian Firearms Information System). So CGI was hired to create an entirely new CFIS II, which would operate alongside CFIS I until the old system could be scrapped. CFIS II was supposed to go operational on Jan. 9, 2003, but the January date got postponed to June, and 2003 to 2004, and $81 million was thrown at it before a new Conservative government scrapped the fiasco in 2007. Last year, the Government of Ontario canceled another CGI registry that never saw the light of day – just for one disease, diabetes, and costing a mere $46 million.
[. . .]
Was the Government of the United States aware that CGI had been fired by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario (and the Government of New Brunswick)?

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1013/steyn.php3#.UnHRmd00jDo

Jewish World Review
Oct. 28, 2013/ 24 Mar-Cheshvan, 5774
This is way cooler than the decline and fall of the Roman Empire
By Mark Steyn