Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Bacon Stymied in Insincere Attempt to Enroll in Obamacare

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Just for yucks, I tried signing up for Obamacare. Not that I wanted the insurance — I just wanted to see what happened. Or didn’t happen.

As it turns out, I didn’t get past the account sign-up stage. Here was my message:

error_message

Anybody remember Hurricane Katrina? According to liberals like Bill Maher, that fiasco was Exhibit One in the indictment of the Bush administration on the charge that Republicans are too stupid and incompetent to make government work. (Never mind the role played by corrupt state and local governments.)

Now, here it is, several days past the opening of Obamacare’s state health exchanges, and people still can’t even create an account, much less get price quotes… much less actually get insurance. And there is no one else to blame!

Of course, the Obama-ites can always say things would have been worse if the Republicans had been in charge. Our computers probably would have gotten infected with malware!

— JAB

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15 responses to “Bacon Stymied in Insincere Attempt to Enroll in Obamacare”

  1. Breckinridge Avatar
    Breckinridge

    What they will say, with some justification, is that things would have been better if the various states like VA had done their own and not dumped everybody on the central system. Apparently the belief in federalism is just lip service, at least in Virginia. But the Tea Party has made Obamacare so toxic that no Republican can even administer it.

    Granted, the computer debacle is inexcusable. And it makes a point I’ve been pondering, that the GOP would have been better off not creating a nice cover story with the failed (and fruitless) effort to de-fund it. With only one chamber under their control, this is just a temper tantrum (and a whopper.) But now the opening problems with the health offerings is a back story at best.

    As an aging boomer and a self-employed worker I’ve been conflicted on this whole effort all along. The status quo ante was not acceptable. The individual mandate was an idea I embraced long before I ever heard of Obama, and from what I remember, I prefer this proposal to Hillarycare. This system does require most people to pay something. The idea of a nationalization of health care disturbs me, but with Medicare, Medicaid, CHAMPUS, the Veteran’s Administration, etc, there wasn’t much left over to nationalize. GOP started losing this battle in 1935 and now in 2035 every Democrat will be able to campaign on the slogan — “That Republican will take away your health care!”

    As a boomer I’ve now had the sad but typical experience of losing both my parents to old age and infirmity. Medicare and Social Security directly benefitted them and indirectly benefitted me and the nest egg I’m building in my own defense. Neither suffered from major end of life medical expenses, but both had complete peace of mind that the bills would be paid. I shared that peace of mind. I am in no position to throw rocks at Social Security or Medicare.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      thank you Breckinridge… that was good.

    2. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      re: ” The idea of a nationalization of health care disturbs me, but with Medicare, Medicaid, CHAMPUS, the Veteran’s Administration, etc, there wasn’t much left over to nationalize.”

      but it’s not nationalized. It’s ALL private insurance providers and all private medical providers.

      the only thing the govt does is provide a framework for large insurance pools.

      the only true govt health care in the US with actual govt doctors is the VA.

      everything else is private providers.

  2. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    This is the problem with liberalism – the government is incompetent. Hopelessly incompetent. Liberals can talk about all the theory they want. They can claim that government is a force for good. However, the government screws up virtually everything it touches. Social security is inter-generational theft, nothing more. The people who pay the highest percentage of their incomes into the simple-minded program will get the least benefits. Obamacare is inter-generational theft too. How do you think insurance companies can insure people with pre-existing conditions at reasonable rates? By charging people without pre-existing conditions too much. And who lives life without pre-existing conditions? The young.

    “The answer is that Obamacare wasn’t designed to help healthy people with average incomes get health insurance. It was designed to force those people to pay more for coverage, in order to subsidize insurance for people with incomes near the poverty line, and those with chronic or costly medical conditions.”.

    http://onforb.es/1alA1VF

    Beyond that, the imbeciles in the Obama Administration can’t develop a web site despite spending $500M! Do you know why it isn’t working (beyond simple incompetence)? Because you have to register before you can browse the plans. Why? Because the ODumbo Administration did NOT want people to be easily able to see the costs of insurance. So, they want you to register before you browse so they can calculate all the subsidies and stipends you are eligible to receive in an effort to reduce “sticker shock”.

    Obama’s endlessly repeated claim that Obamacare won’t change anything except for the people who need insurance but don’t have it is an out and out lie.

    1. Richard Avatar
      Richard

      Social Security and Medicare are a pact between the young and the old to take care of the old, because eventually the young will be old (and also because the old are the young’s parents) It’s not intergenerational theft because everyone gets old. There are many problems with Social Security and Medicare, but all of us – young and old – would be much worse without it. If there is a scandal with Social Security, it is that that those who don’t really need it because they have been materially successful during their working careers (because of the blessings of our country AND its government, and in many cases because of their exploitation of government programs) get it anyway.

      3 parables to consider with regard to current arguments about Social Security, Medicare, and Obamacare:

      1. The lifeboat gets overcrowded. Those already in use the paddles to knock those that are not over the head to keep them out.
      2. Famine. Those with the grain begin to hoard it because they might need it sometime in the future (or because they can make a big profit off it) while others starve.
      3. The story of the loaves and fishes.

      I believe our situation is like the loaves and fishes.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    there are two distinct problems here.

    the first is the CONCEPT of ObamaCare and if you want to disregard EVERYTHING else except the ability of people to buy insurance even with pre-existing conditions, change jobs and keep that insurance, move to a different state and still keep insurance and the fact that the insurance pools themselves are HUGE which means lower premiums…

    these are important gains.

    they could have been done in a number of different ways including ways that the Heritage folks and the GOP advocated back during the Clinton years but they chose to do nothing – and this is what happens when you do nothing. SOMETHING gets done – and it may not be the best but those who did nothing have little room to complain.

    the second part of this is the implementation…

    it’s a mess, no question about it but remember – this is the very same government that put a man on the moon, did the Mars Rover, can take out a terrorist with a drone operated on a console 10,000 miles a way… can “listen” to millions of phones calls, can put up a network of GPS satellites than operate pretty much flawlessly, can put up NOAA satellites that can tell you the scope and scale of a Katrina or Sandy as well as pretty good info on when and where they hit…

    in short.. the govt can do good software.. but they can also obviously do bad software.

    I want DJ to also admit that Amazon and Apple have created awful websites. that did not operate flawlessly… Google/GMAIL have gone down for hours at a time… Bank of America and others have had their computers hacked and millions of account data stolen, etc, etc…

    in the world of computers – bad stuff happens. I’m surprised that a man whose business involves software as a business is not more humble!

    healthcare.gov is NOT a simple system. it’s a nationwide database with millions of accounts and … the folks who developed it – they were not up to the task but remember again.. there was a time when Amazon sucked big time in it’s early days.. also… big systems running in real time are hard.

    About once a month – my online banking returns a message ” system temporarily unavailable”.

    Do I say the Bank is incompetent, corrupt, incapable.. or HORRORs “liberal”.

    nope… and I bet DJ and Jim Bacon both have also encountered that message that says “system unavailable” also…

    Finally – the “lie”. I agree.

    there are a gazillion moving parts inside of ObamaCare that will cause ricochets throughout the entire health care system – public and private.

    but you know.. those who get employer-provided get thousands in subsidies and those who get Medicare get thousands in subsidies and if you’re not in one of those two groups – you are screwed – and that’s not right either.

  4. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    “Google/GMAIL have gone down for hours at a time”

    HOURS at a time! That’s funny. The Obamacare web site has been down for two weeks.

    The individual mandate should have been delayed. Obamacare was NOT ready. The Republicans in the House of Representatives were right.

  5. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    “these are important gains.”

    As long as you consider stealing from the young to subsidize the old, I guess they are gains.

  6. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    So, now the unions will get a delay in paying the OBamacare tax? I guess the sniveling liberal senators just couldn’t stomach the possibility of upsetting their union pals.

    Yeah, LarryG – this is going really well.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/328459-labor-gets-obamacare-olive-branch-

  7. Breckinridge Avatar
    Breckinridge

    DJ — you are making my point that all along the Keystone Cop rollout should have been the story, not the doomed effort to defund it. My main concern over this whole exercise was my lack of confidence it could be managed, and my total confidence that the well-connected would be able to gain special treatments. But the heart of the program is that everybody needs to be covered somehow, including those with no immediate needs (the young and healthy) and those with pre-existing conditions (moi, among others). Grow the pool. Set some minimum standards. Break down the interstate barriers. Let the market try to work. The biggest failure in my mind was to rein in the lawsuits — the barrage of national TV ads trolling for clients for drug lawsuits continues, even escalates, and we are all paying for THAT too.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      I kind of agree with you. The system wasn’t working and something had to be done. But politicians, as a class, are sleazy. And what was got was a mish-mash. The Obamacare regulations are 11.5M words in length. The implementation was a disaster. The unions will get a delay on their taxes. In other words, politics as usual.

      If we want to spend 35% of our GDP on government (at all levels) then we need better politicians.

  8. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    The kinks in the computer system will be worked out. Some of us will be glad when we need to get insurance (when we are no longer covered by our employer or spouse’s plan) that we will be able to get it.

  9. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    People who cannot current get insurance are going to flock to ObamaCare and they will persevere through the rollout issues.. i.e. getting health care after waiting 2, 3 months verses not having it for years is no contest.

    we keep talking about the young not needing health care. the young don’t need health care like they don’t need pensions.

    in both cases – they need to be putting aside money – for the day when they WILL NEED one or the other or both.

    If we used that same argument with FICA taxes – what would happen?

    if we allowed young people to NOT BUY auto insurance what would happen?

    when we talk about “they don’t have a need” – that’s a temporary condition that will, at some point convert to a need.

    yes.. there might be a few lucky young people who die early or even live long and then die without needing health care – but we’re talking about 1 or or 3%. The rest WILL NEED health care at some point in their lives and some of them when they do will need a whole lot more than they can pay for.

    that’s the whole concept of INSURANCE.

    the “young people don’t need it” is basically an argument that insurance will never be needed… and that’ simply not true – no more than arguing that you won’t need a pension for 40 years so no need to set side money right now.

    If there was one or more OECD countries in the world that did health care differently .. and according to what conservatives claim is the way to do it – then by all means we should pursue that path.

    But the truth is – the path that some Conservatives want us to follow – we only see examples of in 3rd world countries.

    there is a mindset on the right that we should change our system to something of which there is no real world examples of – because – we have “faith” the free market will “work” in a way that is better than all the OECD countries AND will not end up like 3rd world countries.

    Sorry, I need MORE than some ideological “vision” to convince me that we ought to change our system on a “belief” based on no existing real world examples of.

    the biggest hit on ObamaCare is that it’s “govt” and “socialist” … and that’s basically not true.

    It’s NOT like Medicare which is single-payer govt insurance. It’s ALL private insurance.

    and there are no govt doctors and no death squads.. all the providers are private not govt..

    but don’t let those facts get in the way of a good “propaganda” effort!

    the opponents cannot win the argument by arguing the truth. they have to lie. and it then becomes a contest of just how many gullible there are – willing to believe the lie – the govt doctors, the death panels, etc…

  10. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    First, Jim,
    Have you ever tried to apply for health insurance with a for-profit company when you were independently employed and not part of a company’s group plan?
    No? I have and it is hell. They go through all your prescriptions, give you one premium quote, then double it and then when you reply they say your deadline has expired. In other words, if you are self-employed and over 55 they do not want your business. Ever tried doing this? It might make the ACA look tame.
    Plus, as far as the government never getting anything right, I had to help my now deceased parents manage their care in their last years, especially my Mom’s. I dealt with Medicare and Tri-Care For Life, the military insurance. I never had a problem, although I did with health providers billing you without bothering to run it through insurance first and I learned never to pay out of pocket without double checking and resisting. These were all for profits. Just tell ’em to sue you. They’ll get it right eventually or go away.
    Your usual knee jerk isn’t working in this case although I admit that ObamaCare has had a lot of glitches.They should have followed Romney Care’s approach. Godf Bless Republicans!

  11. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Peter has an excellent point. the number one fundamental problem with health insurance is that companies have strong incentives to dump ANYONE they think will cost them more money.

    Imagine how many people over 65 could get ” free market ” health insurance if there was no Medicare.

    and You could qualify but your child with asthma might not or your spouse might not.

    that one problem is at the crux of the philosophical differences about health insurance in this country.

    Those who insist that the “free market” is better than the govt – totally ignore this issue and as Peter points out – the “free market” only wants to insure people who they think are not going to cost them money.

    The GOP has had ample opportunities to respond to this issue but it’s clear that philosophically, they have no intention to address it.

    that pretty much leaves people in those vulnerable circumstances with one option – ObamaCare – even if their website sucks.

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