Friday, November 01, 2013

My 2 Cents on Obamacare

Ok, maybe it will be a nickle or maybe even a dime.

Let's start with the catastrophic roll-out web site screw-up. Granted that it's just a techie thing, and I've seen my share of techie foul-ups (I've even been a part of a few), but this is such a screw-up it leaves one breathless.

Yes, the technology is more complicated that it looks but they could at least have hired a contractor that had some vague notion of what they were doing. I would love to know how the selection process went on this puppy.

There is no question in my mind that Kathleen Sebelius should be canned. This is a foul-up of that kind of magnitude. She had ONE THING TO GET RIGHT and she blew it spectacularly.

Now let's talk about the fact that, despite constant assurances that you could keep the health care you had, apparently this wasn't true in all cases. Due to regulations instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services, many private policies aren't grandfathered because they don't meet the Health Care Law requirements.

What this means is a golden opportunity for insurance companies to (1) dump policy categories (and they must end a whole business area and not individual policies) that are unprofitable or are so piss poor they're law suits waiting to happen. The Health Care Law introduction gives them the perfect excuse.

AND OBAMA KNEW IT ALL ALONG. Where I come from we call that lying.

The solution is simple. Pass a law that guarantees people can choose to keep policies they had prior to March 2010 (the current grandfathering cut-off) unchanged if they're happy with it and regardless of how lousy the policy may be.

What do you figure the chances are Congress can do something BEFORE January 1 when the policies disappear?

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