The College Fix

OPINION

After hearing Democrats and Republicans clash over how the Affordable Care Act would affect healthcare premiums, I recently decided to find out what my costs under Obamacare might be under the newly launched Healthcare.gov.

I got about as far as the homepage.

Every time I tried to create an account, I was hit with an error message: “Important: Your account couldn’t be created at this time. The system is unavailable.”

Fortunately, I have health insurance do not need the services of Obamacare.  Yet, what about the millions of other uninsured Americans who expected the panacea healthcare they were promised?

The website’s traffic dropped 88 percent over the first two weeks after its launch Oct. 1. As of Wednesday, Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius could not even say how many people have signed up for HealthCare.gov, citing the problematic system.

HHS department officials have said that the problems have been caused by the initial wave of interest, which stressed the account service. 

“The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people,” a post on the department’s website reads.  “We are committed to doing better.”

President Obama also vowed a “tech surge” to fix the website’s problems.

When it’s said and done, Healthcare.gov will cost taxpayers more than  $1 billion, according to a report released by Bloomberg government analyst Peter Gosselin. 

This is an increase from the initial $394 billion estimate by the Government Accountability Office.

Gosselin argued the initial estimate was too narrowly focused.  He expanded his search of a federal contractor database to include all awards where the acronym “ACA” or other related words and phrases appeared, and found more than $1 billion in awards.  He also argues the “tech surge” will result in additional spending.

With more than $1 billion in tax dollars invested in the hyped website, the Obama administration ought to be embarrassed. What’s more, the website has showed minimal signs of improvement nearly one month after its launch.

As it stands now, the Healthcare.gov debacle has highlighted an all too common theme of the federal government: ineptitude.

Take another infamous example:  The United States Postal Service, which racked up a $15.9 billion dollar deficit last year. The postal Board of Governors said last month it is seeking to raise the price of a first-class stamp from 46 cents to 49 cents to help its “precarious financial condition.”

One can argue that technological advancements are mainly responsible for the postal service’s failure.  Fewer letters and bills are traveling through the mail thanks to email, Facebook, iPhones, and online bill pay.

Yet, efficient business managers – almost always found in the private sector, where excellence matters – adapt to changing times and make balancing budgets a priority.

The same government failure can be seen with Social Security.  According to the program’s trustees, two of its trust funds will be insolvent in 2033 without entitlement reform legislation from Congress.

Many have rightfully suggested that the Obamacare website’s dismal failure is a red herring to the real issue – that government-subsidized, federally mandated health insurance is not only a bad idea, it’s unconstitutional.

However, if they can’t even get the website right, the fiasco serves as a prime example of why the government should not run things, least of all a huge chunk of the nation’s health care system.

Fix contributor Michael Cipriano is a student at American University.

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