If you want to know why Democratic Senators appear to be panicking over Obamacare, it is probably because the White House has not been able to convince them that HealthCare.gov will be up and running as promised by November 30.
And President Obama's HealthCare.gov surge czar Jeffrey Zients did nothing to calm that panic Friday on a conference call with reporters. Reuters reports:
The Obama administration's HealthCare.gov adviser Jeffrey Zeints said on Friday that the trouble-plagued federal healthcare website is improving, but that higher volumes of visitors are exposing new capacity and software issues.
In a conference call with reporters, Zeints said progress this week has been marred by roadblocks. He described HealthCare.gov as being "a long way from where it needs to be."
The administration is struggling to resolve problems with the website by the end of November, when it has pledged to have the system operating smoothly for the vast number of users including uninsured people interested in obtaining subsidized private health insurance.
As we've previously reported, Zients initial November 30 deadline seemed overly ambitious when it was given almost a month ago. So if Zients is discovering new problems as he fixes the ones he already identified, that makes it highly unlikely he will meet his original timetable.
And if Obama fails to get HealthCare.gov up and running by November 30, there is no telling what Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2014 might do.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) has already agreed to co-sponsor legislation with Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) that would force insurance companies to un-cancel all the millions of insurance policies Obamacare already killed.
But this would only make the current high prices on the Obamacare exchanges even worse. The whole reason people are seeing their old policies cancelled, and replace with more expensive option with less benefits, is because Obamacare needs the healthy people with insurance now to help pay for the sick people who will be gaining insurance through Obamacare.
The reality there simply is no way to fix Obamacare even if the website gets fixed.