A long and detailed assessment of the present technical problems of the Obamacare exchange website.
A long and detailed assessment of the present technical problems of the Obamacare exchange website.
It is worth the long read. The author appears to have asked the right questions of a lot of the right people, and appears to have approached the issue honestly. Key quote:
In a couple of ways, then, the severe user-interface problems at the front end of the federal exchange has actually had some advantages from CMS’s point of view, because by keeping enrollment volume low it has kept some other huge problems from becoming instantly uncontrollable.
But that low volume is mostly a very bad thing for Obamacare, of course, since the viability of the exchanges depends on a certain size and demographic mix which cannot be attained unless these problems are resolved very quickly. I couldn’t get enrollment numbers from any of the people I spoke with, but I was told that the uptake model that HHS built (using CBO projections) to predict how the exchanges would work made a low-end estimate that just under half a million people would enroll nationwide by October 31st, and that enrollment would then accelerate dramatically between November 15 and December 30th. The October 31 target, which was thought to be modest, now looks essentially impossible to reach, but their bigger worry is that period in November and December.
If the problems now plaguing the system are not resolved by mid-November and the flow of enrollments at that point looks like it does now, the prospects for the first year of the exchanges will be in very grave jeopardy.
As I said, read the whole thing. Whether you support or oppose Obamacare, this article appears to give an honest appraisal of the present situation, which is not good.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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A long and detailed assessment of the present technical problems of the Obamacare exchange website.
It is worth the long read. The author appears to have asked the right questions of a lot of the right people, and appears to have approached the issue honestly. Key quote:
In a couple of ways, then, the severe user-interface problems at the front end of the federal exchange has actually had some advantages from CMS’s point of view, because by keeping enrollment volume low it has kept some other huge problems from becoming instantly uncontrollable.
But that low volume is mostly a very bad thing for Obamacare, of course, since the viability of the exchanges depends on a certain size and demographic mix which cannot be attained unless these problems are resolved very quickly. I couldn’t get enrollment numbers from any of the people I spoke with, but I was told that the uptake model that HHS built (using CBO projections) to predict how the exchanges would work made a low-end estimate that just under half a million people would enroll nationwide by October 31st, and that enrollment would then accelerate dramatically between November 15 and December 30th. The October 31 target, which was thought to be modest, now looks essentially impossible to reach, but their bigger worry is that period in November and December.
If the problems now plaguing the system are not resolved by mid-November and the flow of enrollments at that point looks like it does now, the prospects for the first year of the exchanges will be in very grave jeopardy.
As I said, read the whole thing. Whether you support or oppose Obamacare, this article appears to give an honest appraisal of the present situation, which is not good.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
If memory serves, Obamacare was supposed to provide some 30 million uninsured Americans with health insurance. That was the big selling point. The law demands that most everyone have coverage by 1 January, 2014. It appears increasingly unlikely that that goal is going to be anywhere near fulfilled.
Question: What is the point?
This is such BS on a massive scale that it’s hard to know where to start. Tens of millions of people (including this blog) pointed out the problems, but were shouted down by the ‘true believers’.
If someone voted Democrat, they own the problem.
Biggest scam in American history!
But that is precisely the point … When the exchanges fail, only the federal government (aka single payer) will be able to provide health care. I doubt the ACA was designed to fail immediately, but it becomes the happy (to its designers) consequence.
As a foreigner, this chart appears incredibly bizarre to me.
http://kff.org/infographic/employer-responsibility-under-the-affordable-care-act/
Why are employers “responsible” for the health care of their employees?
Best answer I’ve ever heard: historical accident of the tax code.
“Why are employers ‘responsible’ for the health care of their employees?”
There has long been a call for all employers to provide health care insurance for their employees.
Well, you see, in the developing “nannystate” of the US, our ruling class have projected their own inadequacies onto We the People, believing that we are too stupid/immature/childlike/whatever to take care of ourselves. After all, look at all the women who get pregnant out of wedlock and become wards of the state (federal or state governments). They clearly were not mature enough as teenagers to be left on their own, and their parents were not adequate at keeping them from getting pregnant. Our ruling class thinks, therefore, that no American can care for himself, much less his family.
Since — the ruling class and other liberals think — employers have infinite amounts of money (another projection: because the federal government can print — and is printing — huge sums of money, employers should have bottomless pockets full of money, too) they can obviously afford and should be required to provide for expensive health care insurance.
This, of course fails to cover the unemployed (and other wards of the state), so for our own good, the rest of the overbearing Patient “Protection” and “Affordable” “Care” Act was created and coerced upon us, despite no poll of the public showed that it was wanted by a majority of the public (polls have consistently shown that more people didn’t want it than wanted it, and now they are showing that a majority don’t want it at all). It is all for the greater good.
If I sound facetious or sarcastic, I am not. This is actually how liberals, whom I live among, think.
A little history:
Employer-paid health insurance began during The Great Depression, after President Franklin Roosevelt froze wages. In order for employers to entice people to work for them, they started offering benefits above monetary compensation (otherwise, why work when the government will pay you not to?). Healthcare insurance was one benefit that an aircraft manufacturer offered, and it worked so well that other companies followed. Thus, the momentum of such benefits remained ever since, to the point where the “benefits package” is a major consideration when choosing between job offers.
This is how a temporary government interference with business can become a major problem for decades (or perhaps centuries). (E. g. Paris still washes its streets every night, despite a complete lack of horse poop.)