Kathleen Sebelius, noting that the government bureaucracies with which she is associated cannot operate a website, protests: “Hopefully you’ll give us the same slack you give Apple.”

Deal: Just as soon as we have the same choice about Obamacare as we do about whether we buy Apple products, we’ll extend the same indulgence. The difference is, there’s no law that says we have to buy Apple products, and the IRS will not be dispatched to seize our assets if we fail to get the newest iPod. The benefits of choice are a package deal — you want consumers to treat you like Apple, treat them like Apple treats consumers. You can’t do that with a mandate.

When you pass a law that says “Everybody must buy Insurance Product X,” and then ask government agencies to set up artificial marketplaces to facilitate the sale of Product X, you’ve failed to create a real market — and from that, incompetency and stagnation flow inevitably.

Welcome to the DMV-ification of medicine.