I try to keep upbeat on my blog, so if you don’t want to hear about something infuriating…stop now and skip this post.
Prior to retiring to be a writer, I was a healthcare executive. I read the entire healthcare reform act bill, now referred to as Obamacare, and did an analysis. I was accused of being crazy, anti-Obama, anti-healthcare, alarmist, etc. I need to find that original analysis and reprint it. I was all too correct on how it would be implemented. For the record, I am for universal healthcare in the United States – but not run in any way by the government. I believe the patient and their doctor should control treatment. The only way to do that is to have the patient paying and selecting the care and the doctor charging and recommending the care. Having the government and an insurance company pay and decide sucks. Government paid vouchers for the poor to buy insurance is the way to do it.
But that is not the part that infuriated me. It was when I found out what was spent on Health.gov, the federal site. Mind you, this site, which does not function, is the ONLY thing the federal HHS had to do. It simply takes applications, then refers them to the state exchanges. The state exchanges then determine eligibility and screen for Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility, then give you a list of options and calculate your subsidy if any. The insurers then provide the medical treatment. HHS had four years – and ONLY one job to do…
1) They originally budgeted $100 million for this website – the cost has now soared to over $600 million;
2) They hired a company with a history of ripping off governments and not performing – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/23/red-flags-company-behind-obamacare-site-has-checkered-past/
3) They knew about the problems and did not fix them;
4) They said now, they will bring in the best and brightest to fix it (why not do that to start with);
5) They won’t tell us how many people were actually able to sign up, but the number leaked out that nationwide, the first day – SIX, yes, one more than five, just six people were able to enroll;
6) Secretary Sebelius illegally went around the country raising funds for pro-Obamacare advertising and shaking down insurance companies, but didn’t get the website fixed. If you are willing to bend or break laws to get people to support it, why not actually get it to work too?
7) So now, the administration is bringing in the folks who did their campaign to help – http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/obamacare-healthcaregov-harper-reed
8) That’s right, Obama’s donor firm gets the money now – http://nypost.com/2013/11/01/obama-donors-firm-hired-to-fix-web-mess-it-helped-make/
9) The Democrats refused to let Republicans delay the individual mandate, even when they shut down the government to try.
10) As a result, people without insurance will be fined by the IRS or have their refunds withheld, even though those same people can’t actually get on the site to get their insurance.
11) Over 15 million people are losing their individual insurance policies and if and when they can sign up for the ‘free health care’, their premiums are going to double on average.
12) Up to 60 million other people are on the bubble as businesses decide whether or not to continue coverage.
Whether you are for or against healthcare reform, $600 million, crony politics, and people still can’t sign up?
Yep, I’m pretty fed up with crap. The worst part is I am paying for it, and you are, and our grandchildren each owe about $50,000 as well for the debt we have racked up for what?
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 