The Obamacare website is fixed!!! (Kinda.) Well, it still lacks any basic security measures, it is still logging people off for no reason, and it’s not actually enrolling people who complete the application process… So, yeah: It’s close enough for government work.
Let me put this another way: You spend days logging on (and re-logging on) to the website. You even get through setting up a username and password. You finally get to enter your personal information (don’t worry: You will soon be winning a Nigerian lottery).You even get to view some rates and plans. And… You pick one… Well, it turns out that you still might not be enrolled in any actual insurance plan.
Consider this story from ABC News:
Bob Shlora of Alpharetta, Ga., was supposed to be a belated Obamacare success story. After weeks of trying, the 61-year-old told ABC News he fully enrolled in a new health insurance plan through the federal marketplace over the weekend, and received a Humana policy ID number to prove it. But two days later, his insurer has no record of the transaction, Shlora said, even though his account on the government website indicates that he has a plan.
Maybe it will give Bob a little comfort to know that the IRS will be verifying his enrollment for him on next year’s tax assessments. (Don’t get sick Bob.) Bob’s reaction to the fiasco, however, was typical of American’s disdain for government enterprises:
“I feel like this: My application was taken … by a bureaucrat, it was put on a conveyor belt and it’s still going around, and it’s never going to leave the building,” he said. “I’ve lost hope. If it happens, great.”
In all fairness, it’s not really the website’s fault. After all, it is run by the government.
In the wake of security horror stories, website crashes, and consumer data mishaps, it should seem ironic that the President’s renewed sales pitch revolves around bringing the experience up to the standards we’ve become accustomed to in the private sector.
Remember when Obama explained that the website would be easier than making a purchase on e-bay or Amazon? Remember when he compared his website’s glitches to those of the new Apple operating software?
If the objective is to have a healthcare system that operates as efficiently and easily as the private sector economy… Then, why did we hand control over to the government?
Billions of federal tax dollars have been spent since the government demanded stewardship over the healthcare industry, and we’re faced with a failing system of incompetence and inadequacies. And our big hope now? That maybe, after Obama spends billions more and selectively implements the law, we will finally have a system that is close to being as efficient as our private sector economy.
The ongoing drama over Healthcare.gov, and Obamacare, is an indictment of central planner’s inadequate grasp of consumer needs or business operations.
God bless the Democrats, however, for making a bad piece of legislation into a full-blown disaster. Harry Reid has exempted members of his staff from Obamacare’s requirements. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democrat chairmanwoman, has insisted that Democrats across the nation will be running with Obamacare as their main message for the 2014 elections (OhPleaseBeTruePleaseBeTruePleaseBeTrue).
Even the President has managed to double down on his policy failure by pushing a broken website, giving out special exemptions to business groups, and allowing federal subsidies to be handed out on the “honor system.”
The truth is, the Healthcare.gov fiasco is a far bigger crises for the Democrat party than a poorly managed (and highly insecure) website. It is a window into the failure of government sponsored healthcare. Actually, it is a window into the incompetence of government. It is but a mere brush stroke in an impressionist painting of government incompetence. And, unlike a farfetched idea of taxing some Wall Street financier’s bank account, this failure can be felt in all corners of the American electorate.
So let’s hope that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is right, and Democrats campaign on preserving a deterioration of quality healthcare. Let’s hope that Obama continues his desperate defense of his indefensible Obamacare sales pitches. And let’s hope that Republicans can recapture the Senate before Bob gets sick without insurance coverage.