Cyber Monday should be a big day for the online health exchange website, HealthCare.gov, that received a remarkable facelift over the last two months, but as the Wall Street Journal notes, “The system isn’t working and the website isn’t fixed.”
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That’s because the aim of the two-month long revamp wasn’t really to fix the website, but merely to provide political cover for vulnerable Democrats. It only needed to appear that work was being done, despite the needed fixes perhaps not made.
From the Wall Street Journal:
This weekend miracle defies other evidence, such as the recent admission by an HHS official that 30% to 40% of the exchanges are still unfinished. Much of this involves the “back end” of the exchange operation that provides information to insurers but that consumers don’t see. In a pre-Thanksgiving news dump, HHS even gave up on the federal exchanges for small business and delayed those for a year.
The truth is that the White House is defining as a “success” however well or poorly the website actually works so it can declare political victory. The millions of people who’ve had their old coverage cancelled must re-enroll by December 23 to avoid gaps in coverage by the New Year. So like the Keynesian multiplier for stimulus spending, the White House is revising its goals along the way and claiming success based on nonfalsifiable standards.
The website can now manage more than 800,000 visitors though the administration urged its union allies to not have their members use the website immediately for fear of a system overload.
CNN reported, “Bottom line: not smooth sailing just yet.”
The website revamp arrives just as millions, kicked off their insurance due to Obamacare health policy rules, will need to sign up for policies. Those needing insurance by January 2014 will have only 2 weeks to sign up.
Many liberal pundits have even admitted that the failure for Healthcare.gov to be as usable as Kayak or Amazon is an indictment on the idea of government as a solution.
“The most interesting thing in this report, right, page one– it’s page three of the report, it says here that, ‘The team is operating with private sector velocity and effectiveness,'” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“Okay, that is an acknowledgement that, ‘You know what? If this was a government operation for a long time and it failed, now we’re bringing in the private sector folks.” I mean, that is an indictment on the whole idea of government as a solution, frankly,” he said.
“If this miracle fix is real, the White House will open the ObamaCare black box to an independent audit, or maybe start by answering questions honestly,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
“The mission accomplished pose is another attempt to power through a political deadline,” the newspaper declared. “Americans who have now discovered the Administration’s other false claims—you can keep your old plan and your doctor, and the new plans are better—can be forgiven for waiting to see the actual results.”
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