The Patriot Post® · ObamaCare Rollout Has Flats

The federal and state ObamaCare insurance exchanges opened for business Tuesday and so far it has overwhelmed government websites and agencies and frustrated millions of consumers nationwide who couldn’t even complete the login process. The federal government and 14 individual states had three years to design, implement and test their insurance exchanges (36 states opted out of setting up state exchanges, leaving the job to Washington.) Yet, ObamaCare’s first week was plagued by a multitude of reports from all over the country about glitches in the system.

California, home to 15% of the nation’s uninsured, had to pull its $313 million enrollment site the first day. The agency in charge of the exchange claimed that the site received five million hits, supposedly crashing the system. But two days later, the state admitted its overstatement and said the real number was 645,000. Oops. Meanwhile, Oregon has a faulty calculator that won’t be fixed till later in the month. Louisiana wasn’t even able to determine if a single person has obtained insurance. Federal hotlines were swarmed with calls.

The White House laughably spun these and many other problems as a sign that ObamaCare is even more popular than they anticipated. Even if these problems were caused by pure volume and not just bureaucratic incompetence, early trends don’t bode well for success. ObamaCare needs to draw a larger number of voluntary uninsureds, so-called young invincibles, into the system early to make it viable. They are in a position to balance the cost of fines against the cost of insurance, and right now, fines are winning. Lower than anticipated enrollment will upset the cost balance of the program, raising premiums and leading to more taxes to cover the overage. It will also mean that the eight million working poor and impoverished won’t get subsidies. One more promise to be broken.