Page 6 November 7, 2013 One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion By Gerry Chong Well, it was quite a Halloween. The ghosts and goblins left me with nightmares even days later. Last night, for example, it seemed the dawn would never come. I tossed and turned, and one imagined horror simply morphed into another. In the fog of my subconscious, I learned that both government and private entities project employee terminations and conversions from “As a result, some consumers are turning to low-quality Medicaid as opposed to buying Obama(s)care insurance they cannot afford.” full-time to part-time employees will cause 11 to 35 million to lose their health insurance. That had to be something I dreamed because no law could cause that much damage, could it? But, then, the scene morphed into a second projection that 50 percent to 75 percent of those 14 million with individual coverage would have their policies cancelled because they did not meet Obama(s)care’s spooky standard. Now that had to be an absurdity. Why, if true, that would mean those two projections would result in 18 to 45 million losing their health coverage! Absurd, isn’t it? Now, in my nightmare, there was a ghoul who knew this would happen as far back as 2010, but for political reasons hid it from the public (the night-sweats started as bad thoughts cascaded one on top of the other). Then, to compound the disinformation, he claimed the software glitches on his website would be resolved by the end of November. He had better be right because the insurance exchange companies had based their premiums on an April 2014 start date, and any delays would cause their premium quotes to be invalid! (OMG! The sheets are a tangled mess and the pillow has hit the floor, but the nightmare goes on). Medicaid officials are now confirming that the cost of replacing cancelled policies with Obama(s)care policies will explode across the country and be 30 percent higher in California. As a result, some consumers are turning to low-quality Medicaid as opposed to buying Obama(s)care insurance they cannot afford. Others will opt to pay the $95 federal penalty and go without replacement insurance until they get sick. At that point, because they could not be turned down, they will sign up. Shaking his head, one insurance executive said selling insurance to someone with a preexisting condition is like selling fire insurance on a house that’s on fire. A dazed Democrat admitted, “I’m all in favor of everyone having medical insurance, but I didn’t realize I would have to pay for it.” Duh. The coup de gras occurred when John McAfee, the founder of the McAfee Antivirus company, confirmed the problem with the website is not the software. It is the program’s failure to put everything under government ownership and control. As written now, any hacker can create a phony website, claiming to sell Obama(s)care and steal consumers’ identities. The website’s cost is already 500 percent over budget and is growing--and while it has serious software glitches, it does not address the programmatic problem that will render Obama(s)care useless. (My hair is matted down, and the bags under my dark-circled eyes tell me I’ve got to skip Halloween next year. It’s frightening out there.) • Apology Doesn’t Solve Problems, Highlights Inefficiency By Cristian Vasquez As the problems to register for health coverage under the Affordable Health Care Act, Service Administrator for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Marilyn Tavenner apologized before Congress for the complicated rollout. Unfortunately, an apology four weeks after the rollout and with little having been solved in those four weeks is no more than a reminder of how ill prepared everyone in charge was. Tavenner’s opening statements that they know how eager consumers are to purchase some type of coverage comes across more as an attempt to divert attention from what really matters which is that the majority of people attempting to use HealthCare.gov are struggling to make a purchase. At the core of this issue is that everyone responsible for making sure that this website and that these health care options be made available by now, have failed. The Affordable Care Act was passed back in 2009. That means that those who have championed this law and have fought for giving more Americans access to health care coverage were not able to figure out the logistics of their brainchild in four years. That is flat out embarrassing. I’ve said it before and I stand by it now, I am looking forward being able to purchase my own health insurance. I was uninsured throughout my 20s as I worked part-time jobs and made my way through school. Now, as an independent contractor, I am responsible for my own health care coverage and this is supposed to be a legitimate option for people like myself. Unfortunately, the only way to sign up for coverage has turned out to be a headache and Tavenner’s apology is simply a reminder of everyone’s failure to properly prepare, in four years, for this moment. Also disturbing is the fact that it took four weeks for someone to address the issue. It’s difficult to determine why it took almost an entire month for anyone to come out and acknowledge the deficiencies of the rollout but it remind me of Washington’s inability to be accountable. In any other job having four years to prepare for something like this rollout would result in unemployment. Unfortunately, Tavenner isn’t an election official so we can’t oust her for her role in this snail-paced rollout and nor do we have any idea who is directly responsible for this failure. Despite Tavenner’s apology and her taking responsibility for the program’s failures, there aren’t any signs of reprimands for anyone involved with this fiasco at least for now. All that is left is waiting to see how long it is going to take the same people who got this wrong the first time, despite an almost four-year head start to get it right the second time around. Apologies mean a lot when they come immediately and in this case should have been accompanied with an explanation as to how this will be fixed. Sadly, the apology comes a month after the initial problems were encountered and with no real solution in sight. 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Manhattan 11_07_13
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