After news accounts of the Obamacare exchanges crashing on launch from coast to coast yesterday, I logged on this morning to see if the situation had improved. The federal website, healthcare.gov opened smoothly enough, with colorful photos and attractive, if complex graphics. “The Health Insurance Marketplace is Open!” it chirped with glee. It instructed me to indicate the state in which I live. I selected New York from a pull-down menu. I expected to see a photo of the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, or perhaps Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.
Instead, this popped up on my computer screen:
The “Site unavailable” tab was not exactly promising, nor were the words: “We apologize for the inconvenience, the Marketplace is undergoing maintenance. Please try again later.”
Mind you, this is how things looked on Day Two of Obamacare, and at 6:30 a.m. Demand should have been low at this time, when night owls like me finally get to sleep and normal human beings arise to face the new day. It seems entirely possible that these techno-headaches will multiply in a few hours, as New Yorkers chug down their caffeine, quaff Five-Hour Energy Drinks, and log on to the cleverly named New York State of Health website to try again to learn more about America’s new experiment in government medicine.
Arizona, Florida, Texas, and 22 other states have resisted Obamacare, and basically told Obama that if he wants exchanges in their jurisdictions, he can go ahead and erect them. In contrast, New York and its liberal-Democrat-dominated state government designed its exchange website with enthusiasm and a collectivist sense of purpose. So, if this is as good as Obamacare gets in a cooperative, pro-socialized-medicine state, imagine how things will unfold in places where state officials actively drag their feet on Obamacare implementation.
After just two days, Obamacare already resembles the wheezing, unresponsive, morbidly obese monster about which Republicans and free marketeers have warned consistently for three and a half years.