Performing Surgery On a Sick Website

The Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) went into effect a month ago.  Despite many Republican efforts to defund or kill it, we are well into an era where millions of Americans who couldn't get health insurance either because it was too expensive or pre-existing conditions prevented them from getting it, now can.  And President Barack Obama, for whom the ACA is his baby, promised everyone that if we liked the health care we had before, we can certainly keep it.

That is, if you've been able to get on the website.

HealthCare.gov is supposed to be the starting point for those who want to buy policies, unless your state has its own insurance exchange (such as Minnesota).  So far, however, the site has resembled Murphy's Law, where anything that can go wrong did.

Those who have accessed the site (or tried to) encountered long waits, security glitches, lost information, no browsing through plans unless you're registered, etc.  There have also been media reports that HealthCare.gov had too many flaws, and not enough time to fix them before it went live.

Remember that promise the President made about keeping your health insurance if you liked it?  Well, some people got the word that their plans were being dropped because they were not compatible with the ACA.  So they're forced to go on HealthCare.gov, finding that the plans there are much more expensive than what they had previously.

Who's to blame for all this?  Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, has offered herself as a sacrifice.  That's noble of her, but she's not the only one.  Whoever designed the website is also responsible.  Those who were in charge of the planning also are, as well as those whose job it was to adequately explain the ACA and how the website works to everybody.

Politics, of course, has plenty to do with how the ACA has turned out.  It was initially passed in 2010 by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by Obama, and not one Republican voted for it.  The GOP now has control of the House and is inching toward a majority in the Senate, so they've gotten a lot bolder about getting rid of the ACA--to the point where they threatened to shut down the federal government over it.  Oh wait, that's already happened.

Progressives say that, despite all the problems with HealthCare.gov, the ACA will come out smelling like a rose.  Well, so far it's smelling like something else, and it's not roses.  Even if the website were fixed tomorrow, it has planted doubts in people's minds about the effectiveness of the ACA, and whether the cure is worse than the disease.

Maybe a delay of a few months to a year for the deadline to enroll in health care coverage might not be such a bad thing, if only to allow time for people to get to know the plans without being rushed into them to avoid paying a penalty.  Until then, the Affordable Care Act will continue to be more of an albatross than a feather in the cap for President Obama.