'Obamacare' Needs Improvement

This is not just a political blunder. Barack Obama and his team are on the brink of political catastrophe.

All of this is because of problems with enforcing the “Obamacare” reform of the health care system. On Wednesday, the president met with representatives and senators from the Democratic Party in an emergency meeting. The 2014 congressional election, which could be lost, is at stake here. The idea behind the health care reform operates under the assumption that about 7 million Americans who own private policies — in the United States, the employer usually pays for health insurance — will be able to find new insurance plans on the so-called insurance exchanges. However, it turns out that during the first month, only 106,000 people took advantage of the system, less than 2 percent of all entitled. The numbers are far below the administration’s expectations, admitted Jay Carney, White House spokesperson.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius attempted to put a good face on it, assuring that “even with the issues we’ve had, the marketplace is working.” She also assured that the number of people who decide to buy insurance will grow significantly within the next few months. The largest part of the blame should go to the HealthCare.gov website, which was supposed make it easier for citizens in 36 states to purchase insurance. It proved to be an information technology flop.

Obama’s Flagship Project Downed at Beginning of Journey

The government has had to hire the best professionals in Silicon Valley to solve the issue as soon as possible and keeps promising to remove the flaw by the end of November. Out of the 106,000 who found new plans, 75 percent live in states that launched their own web services — mostly New York and California.

Mass closing of all existing insurance plans by the insurance providers added fuel to the fire. It was estimated that more than 3 million people had their insurance agreements terminated, so they were forced to search for new ones through the dysfunctional HealthCare.gov service. This unintended consequence of Obamacare stirred emotions because the president had personally promised the reform would not lead to anyone losing his or her current insurance.

The reform, which was supposed to assure medical insurance for all people living in the United States, has been a target of Republican attacks from the very beginning. Dominated by this party, the House of Representatives voted many times to repeal the reform — with no legal consequences because the Senate would not react and the White House would always threaten to veto. Republicans do not hide that they intend to take advantage of the issues with Obamacare in the coming election campaigns by presenting the reform as a threat to all essential American rights. Even Obama’s allies in the Democratic Party, including the leader of the Democratic minority in the House, do not hide their critical attitude. Under their pressure, Obama has announced plans to introduce amendments to this law. Therefore, there will be yet another confrontation between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.