I'm sorry you guys didn't like my healthcare website that much but I have to say, I think I did a pretty good job, all things considering. 

It was an honor to be asked to design it, but I probably should not have said yes. You know how sometimes someone asks you to do something and you just don't really have enough time or expertise but you don't want to let that person down? And how you figure, well, they wouldn't have asked me if they didn't think I knew what I was doing, and they probably will have someone to help me out? Well, it's hard to say no to the President. He was so complimentary to me (I couldn't believe he reads my blog!) and I was like, yeah, well, I do do Internet pretty well. I know how to make a link and insert an image out of HTML code and bold and italics and stuff. So if I asked around I could probably build a whole website. I figured, sure, why not. I would eventually catch on how to make a website that people could log into, right?

I should also mention that he called me on September 1 and asked me to get the site up by October 1. So it was kind of a rush job. You know that saying where you can pick two of "cheap, fast and good?" Well, he got the first two.

One problem was, people were too busy to help me with the site, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to learn, since I have a day job and I go to the gym a lot and stuff. The other problem is that I don't really get insurance. I am pretty sure I still owe a clinic ten thousand dollars in fees and the only thing that's saving me is that I believe they're defunct. It's sort of like the Kozmo.com of medicine and my therapy was the DVD I never returned before they went under. So it's hard to make an internet site about a thing you don't really understand.

So, with all that said, being just one person who is very busy and don't understand how the health care system works, I think the original website was pretty good. It looked nice and had some working links and a few people were able to log in and make it work. But, I guess for some people it's not good enough. I was just doing the best I could.

Yes, the new updated site looks pretty neat and stuff. I'm glad it's working for people. But I wish folks had been a little bit more understanding about the first roll-out. I'm just one person who was putting together a website for an entire country and I didn't really think people would pay that much attention to it. I thought I was doing the beta site. If I had known what I know now, I might have asked for more time or gotten a friend to help me out with it. One thing I would do different, for sure, if I did this again is that I wish I hadn't included a "Let us know how we're doing!" link because I got a lot of emails. Some of them were kind of mean. Since the website's been overhauled though I get a lot less email, which is pretty good I suppose.

I haven't heard from the President since the website has been taken over by the "experts." I know he's pretty busy but it would be nice to hear from him, letting me know that the first draft was a good try and it was a nice jumping-off point. Maybe he'll say something about it to me in his Christmas card.

The good news is that I have a lot more time on my hands now. I learned a lot from my experience designing the government healthcare website, and would like the chance to prove it. If you or your country need a healthcare website designed, please let me know.