You were warned of the impending failures inherent in the deployment of Obamacare: Warnings came from all directions, detailing missed deadlines and the lack of transparency preventing anyone from finding out just what progress was being made in all of the myriad of working pieces that make up the enormous undertaking of creating this (2x over-budget) experiment in socialized medicine. I added my voice to that as well, and warned you that many of the myriad of components of the new healthcare system were not going to be ready for prime time when the deadlines came and went.
The miserable website failure is simply one of those components, and most definitely not the last. It could even be said that the website itself was not on anyone’s radar as being the source of Obamacare’s biggest failure, but it goes to show you how truly out of touch this administration is with even those things under its direct control.
With stories of failed pre-launch testing and shortened development schedules, the entire mess can be placed squarely at the feet of the bureaucrats who reportedly failed to heed the warnings of the developers themselves. Having some experience with software project rollouts, the growing number of stories surfacing about the website design and deployment process are beginning to paint a picture of complete disregard for adherence to best practices, change management and a dozen other principles of sound judgment. Who is to blame is still open for debate, and I’m sure it will all come out eventually, but the one thing that does look apparent is the arrogance of the leadership in forcing a deployment that was not ready, just to win political points.
I heard in the media coverage today one local reporter proclaim that there “are so many more healthcare insurance choices for everyone out there today than ever before.” My goodness! Did Blue Cross spring up over the weekend then? Did Kaiser just recently open it’s doors? Thousands upon thousands of healthcare providers existed with insurance offerings long before Obamacare came upon the scene, so why the misdirection?
In fact, there are quite a bit fewer. Health insurance plans in the millions have been reportedly cut off. Vital medical equipment is now being taxed and more people are now suddenly without any coverage at all, and add to that the fact that all of the various type of plans are no longer available because they either provided too much coverage or too little. Foxnews just reported today that only 6 people were able to sign up for medical coverage on the first day in October when the Obamacare website opened to the public. Imagine that, 6 out of 300+ million people in this country… You can’t fail any more dramatically than that.
I know at least one specialist clinic that is closing it’s doors and all of the Doctors are finding work elsewhere come January, and aside from my own personal experience, I’ve heard similar reports both in the media and from personal discussions. People are losing their existing coverage long before it is even possible to get through to obtained to newly government-sanctioned healthcare plans. Nobody can even get to them while Millions are losing there coverage because the law demands those policies be terminated without regard to whether or not replacement coverage plans are available.
To say this is a rocky start for Obamacare is a staggering understatement. MY insurance rates are going up, my personal coverage is being cut in half and my deductibles and out of pocket caps are rising dramatically too, but what hasn’t been widely reported is the changes under the hood for most plans. Those changes being made by all insurance carriers which are designed to cut costs in order to accommodate new rules and coverage requirements. These cost cutting measures take the form of rule changes and new holes in how deductibles and out of pocket caps are calculated. Less of your medical expenses will qualify for your personal deductible, which will also not count towards fulfilling your family deductible until your personal deductible has been satisfied. Then your family deductible no longer counts towards your out of pocket cap either, so that cap which was raised from $4k to $5k will now actually end up closer to $7k or even higher. In such a plan a family could be facing nearly 10$ in medical bills before hitting that out of pocket cap because of the new rules that disqualify more and more procedures from being included in those computations.
Where does this leave you? Well, I guess we are all about to find out, now aren’t we?
You asked for it America, you collectively voted with your greed with a free phone in one hand and the empty promise of cheep healthcare in the other and what you are now left with is a healthcare system that is being dismantled before your eyes because it is being run by incompetent fools who have never once run anything effectively or efficiently in their lives because all they know is the government bureaucracy within which they have made their living, and all without the faintest clue how to run a healthcare system effectively.
You get what you pay for and we all have years ahead paying for it with the blood of those who will now be unable to afford the quickly rising costs of healthcare and are left to die by the very government that promised to save them.
For crying out loud, the administration wouldn’t lift a single finger even to allow a child to qualify for an organ transplant without a judge stepping in to force their hand; do you think for a second they give a damn about your health?
Just my view from the cheap seats,
…getting screwed along with everyone else.
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