Could Walmart Save ObamaCare?

When I read that 30-40% of the ObamaCare system hadn't been built yet, I was even more flabbergasted than before.  I/T disasters are well known for reaching 90% completion and then suddenly ceasing to make progress.  This one must be really out of control!

Digging below the surface a bit led me to this article on payments.  About halfway through the article, this sentence caught by attention:

Behind the scenes, when an individual selects a plan, the federal system transmits a file, known as an “834," with all ...

Ding-ding! That can't be a file - that three-digit code starting with an 8 has to be an EDI transaction type.  Sure enough, check the EDI X12 transaction list. There it is:

EDI 834 - Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance

I don't imagine that there are any less than 100,000 programmers that have implemented EDI for their companies by this time.  Even the smallest of suppliers have had to knuckle under to their large and demanding customers.

I'm sure that my first EDI experience was in the 1970s.  But my quick Google research can only take it back to 1982 and this reference to Pillsbury in the UCS Startup.  I know that Twin Cities companies Pillsbury and Super Value were doing electronic order/invoice exchange prior to that as part of the Grocery Manufacturers Association pilot program.  I'll have to look further to date it.  Ah, those were the days.  No Internet.  Barely even local area networks - we had Datapoint's Arcnet installed, of course.  Communicating from one company's mainframe to another was easy enough, you just used a nicely performing third computer and used the one error-checking protocol that every vendor supported, the biSynch "IBM 2780 remote computer." (You'll find this technique vaguely, and incorrectly, referenced under Serial Communication in the Wikipedia article on EDI.)

Yes, people have been doing this stuff for at least 35 years.  In fact, the Wikipedia UCS article suggests that we might take it back to the 1960s.  That feels more correct.

So wouldn't you think the U.S. Government might be able to find an easy way to solve the ObamaCare data communications issue?  Let's just go to someone that is particularly good at implementing EDI and managing their EDI partners.  They could swallow their pride and go hire Walmart to get the job done.  Yes, I know it would be a big disappointment to have to stoop to that level - but even PBS has admitted to Walmart's expertise.  Perhaps Walmart could trade their expertise for an "Arkansas Anomaly" in the same spirit as the Cornhusker Kickback.