The word “glitches,” which implies temporary irregularities, understates the fundamental and numerous errors on Healthcare.gov since it opened on October 1. These have included flawed log-in forms, misinformation on Medicaid availability, broken calculators, and confusing error messages, to name only a few. The many inoperable features seem so essential to a functioning website that the entire rollout has become something of a joke.
However, criticisms and a handful of amusing spoofs aside, we do need to gain faith in the website’s ultimate ability to work. The United States currently ranks behind Romania and Iran as 46th in Bloomberg global health care efficiency rankings, and 50 million Americans are uninsured. A site that contains exchanges for 50 states is one of the most complex Web efforts designed, and even with more testing mistakes are bound to occur.
More importantly, while the site is problematic, the rollout would have run into opposition even if the site had worked perfectly. Arguments against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were fierce long before October 1. Had the rollout encountered even one bump, those adamantly against the ACA would not have hesitated to point a finger at whatever the misstep was. Talk of website issues, which forms a valid but increasingly exhausted argument, needs to soon be put to rest.
Focusing on bigger problems—like the 12 million people with individual policies incompatible with ACA requirements who are receiving cancellation notices—should instead be our priority. More troubling than the website, which is at least being fixed, is the fact that only a limited number of the ACA’s tens of thousands of coverage plans will be accepted in many hospitals, including those at colleges like UCLA, NYU, and Emory.
We can find plenty of problems with the Obamacare rollout. However, we must at least acknowledge that those responsible have held themselves accountable for website errors and are working to right the many wrongs undermining the ACA’s implementation. In predicting how successful these efforts will be, I share the view of Obamacare agnostics, who believe it is much too early to tell. For now, let’s hope Americans at least have car insurance, since surmounting the problems and criticisms of Obamacare should be quite a bumpy ride.
