A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Chaos On The Health Insurance Front
On Sunday, December 1st, is the not a re-rollout of the Obamacare website. So, last night at 9PM, they took the website down for a 12 hour maintenance interval. Why do I think this is a last minute attempt to get the thing running? Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps it's because they truly care about people having great difficulty getting on the website and difficulty navigating it. Perhaps. Or perhaps it's because they want to get the president's polling numbers up.
Let's forget for the moment that the president seems to get outraged with the performance of the administration often and claims ignorance of whatever went wrong and let's also forget for the moment that the president is the head of that administration and he is the one who ought to know what is going on with his signature achievement.
I just don't think government does anything well and the more complex the project and function, the less able to do it without causing great harm.
I know what you are thinking... "Well, the government seems to do a good job with the military." To those that had that thought all I can say is... you must not have served. I did. It was wasteful, inefficient, and riddled with incompetence. Of course, much of that may no longer be the case but I don't think so. My bet is that it is smaller in scope but higher in cost. I will have to do some research to find out if I am right. Example: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/us/scandal-widens-over-contracts-for-navy-work.html
The government has taken on many tasks over the 224 years of its current existence. How many departments and functions would you rate as excellent? Heck, how many can you even name? I know I can only think of a few and that bothers me somewhat.
I would rather that health insurance not be quasi nationalized.
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5 comments:
I wait patiently for the repeal of Obamacare (ACA). At this rate, it will be swift.
And may a democrat never serve the public for another twenty years.
Progressive liberalism is dead.
M.
I've heard lots of complaints about Obamacare ... and I don't disagree with a lot of the criticisms. But, what's the alternative?
Tom, have you ever heard the admonition "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater?" Instead of directly addressing the specific problems with market based health insurance, the Democrats decided we needed to create a big upheaval and place government in control of that segment of the market. So now we get maternity care coverage for people in their 60's. Now we get mandated coverage people do not want or need because someone, somewhere, possibly needs it.
I'm in favor of mandated coverage. Why? There's a guy who doesn't buy health insurance. He gets in a car accident, or gets cancer, or needs a pacemaker. He needs hospitalization and surgery and maybe some rehab. Who pays the bill? Not him. He can't afford it -- because nobody except the very rich could afford the bill. So who pays? You and I pay, in the form of increased premiums and also the taxes we pay. As long as the medical system is required to treat people, people should be required to buy health insurance. Only seems fair to me.
Tom, I could spend hours discussing (and explaining) how mandating anything has never, ever, brought costs down or even kept them in check. Things that are deemed "fair" are usually fair only to a small number... like the number who will get subsidies that will pay all or a major part of their premiums, for example... We, the paying public will do that. I could also argue that mandated health coverage will encourage people to visit doctors (after all, people are paying those premiums for the coverage, may as well use it) which will lead to even more crowded waiting rooms and, therefore, longer waits to see the doctor and shorter face time with him or her. Fairness is often overrated.
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