By Dave Andrusko
The temptation is nigh on irresistible to poke fun at Healthcare.gov which “went offline” (crashed/went down to the rest of us) for six hours this morning, the day of the ostensible deadline for open enrollment in the insurance exchanges established by ObamaCare.
A “ software bug” (the official explanation) naturally brought up memories of the times the site didn’t work at all, or, worse yet, appeared to work but didn’t, leading people to falsely think they had signed up. (Included in the excusatory lexicon is “stumble,” “glitch,” “wrinkle,” and “unintended consequence,” as Tom Blumer amusingly noted.)
As we noted last week, today’s midnight deadline is all smoke and mirrors.
The Obama administration announced it was extending the deadline, the latest in a long, long series of extensions or exemptions. HHS “decided to give people who already started an application a yet-to-be-finalized amount of wiggle room to complete the process in April,” according to the Washington Post. (There is no verification needed; it’s all “good faith.”)
Here are a few items to keep in mind.
- Just remember nobody knows how many have actually paid the first premium, as opposed to just “signing up.” (Strike that, the Obama administration knows, but isn’t saying.)
- Whatever “surge” there is (real and imaginary), ObamaCare remains dismally unpopular. Last week the Associated Press survey found support for ObamaCare at 26%!
- It wouldn’t be either far or accurate to say I had never heard the networks talk about the extraordinary high premiums and deductibles that are a part of the various plans under ObamaCare. But they were independent stories on two different radio stations that I listened to on the way in today.
- Not only is there waning support for ObamaCare, the level of intensity of supporters versus opponents is mile apart. Writing at POLITICO today, David Nather observes “The greater intensity of Republican voters is no surprise when you take a close look at the polls. People who don’t like the health care law are just more worked up about it than those who like it. In a Pew Research Center poll this month, the largest single group was the one that doesn’t just disapprove of the law, but ‘very strongly’ disapproves of it — 41 percent of the people in the survey. That group includes 79 percent of Republicans, but also 44 percent of independents. By contrast, just 53 percent of Democrats ‘very strongly’ approve of the law — and only 19 percent of independents feel that way” (emphasis added).
- Be sure to read “National Right to Life Report Examines the Effect of the Affordable Care Act in the United States” at www.nrlc.org/communications/healthcarereport. It beautifully “outlines the dangers Obamacare poses to your ability to access life-saving medical treatment.”
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