The Republicans Lost That One

For John, BLUF:  I hope this doesn't cause a short term surge in your business.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Republican Congress-critters tried to make the case that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) was a boondoggle that should go away and something more effective take its place.  They failed.  In failing they may have taken the spotlight away from what was happening with the "insurance exchange" process. Here is the take of Pajamas Media blogger Rick Moran.  He has been talking with people from Health and Human Services' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and insurance industry folks.  He claims there is a consensus that the signup software for ObamaCare is having trouble and may need some time to get fixed.  He quotes from a National Review on Line (NRO) article by Yuval Levin:

The problems people are now facing with the basic interface have taken up most of the time that CMS and its contractors have devoted to troubleshooting so far, and although things have improved a little on this front quite serious problems remain.  But there are very serious problems beyond that, which are more like the sorts of problems people were predicting before the launch: database problems at the nexus of several federal and industry data sources.  The federal data hub itself is so far doing reasonably well at its basic tasks, and that has come as a relief to CMS. But some of the site functions that rely on the hub, both in the federal exchanges and a number of the state exchanges, remain highly problematic.  The calculation of subsidies continues to fail tests, and it’s pretty clear that some actual consumers have made actual purchases with bad information, which will become apparent to them when they get their first bills.  If the interface problems are addressed and the volume of purchases increases, this calculation problem could become a huge concern.

Frankly, it may be way to early to know what is really going on, but given the size of the health care industry in the United States, this is likely to send ripples through the ongoing recovery.

The real question is if the software engineers can fix things while the training is moving or if a hiatus of some duration will be needed before there is a reboot, a reboot that could require everyone who has signed up to sign up again.

The question then might be if the President would do that delay by executive order or if it will be a big enough deal that he will have to go to Congress to make it happen.  I guess the question really is, will someone be able to get an injunction against the President, that might quickly go straight to the US Supreme Court, sort of like a Florida Electoral Recount.

Regards  —  Cliff