Obama's Software Fiasco

The failed launch of the health care website threatens the health care reform and the presidency.

Just as President Obama has achieved a clear victory over the Republicans in the budget and debt ceiling dispute, he is about to face a crushing defeat. The problems related to the health care reform website are more than just an embarrassment. They threaten his most important domestic accomplishment and thus his entire presidency.

The website healthcare.gov is still, one month after its launch, crashing; problems go far beyond what has been claimed during the first couple of days. Up until now it has been impossible for many users to sign up for a health insurance plan, and information provided to different providers has often been inaccurate. The website has been poorly built and was hardly tested before the launch, according to a software expert. Currently there are hectic attempts to repair the issues; however, no one knows for sure how long it is going to take to fix the worst errors.

This is clearly more than just a software problem. Obamacare will only work if millions of mostly young, healthy Americans, who due to financial reasons have previously chosen not to be insured, sign up for a subsidized health insurance plan with a private provider. However, if only potentially ill people sign up, all customers will face a raise in premiums. As this seems even more daunting to healthy people, it could cause the entire fragile system to collapse, leading to a scenario that has already been described as a “death spiral.”

This is also the reason why it is not an option to postpone the legal requirement to buy insurance or face penalties, which will be enforced as of March 2014. Thus, everyone wonders right now how you can obligate people to do something that technically is not even possible.

The Republicans would feel quite affirmed if Obamacare fails this way — not just in their criticism of Obamacare, which they tried to stop while disputing the budget plans, but in their general rejection of large government-funded programs. It would be a massive failure for any left liberal politician, expert or commentator who believes that the government can have indeed a positive impact on the economy and the society.

Obama’s increasing popularity since the end of the government shutdown was practically shut down due to the negative headlines related to Obamacare. Obama and his team appear to be incompetent if they can’t manage to run their most critical endeavor.

One thing is for sure: The government did not approach the implementation of Obamacare with sufficient care. The subcontractors were mediocre; Obama’s team ignored plenty of warning signals. That most of the Republican states boycott the reform does not help the case, but it is not an excuse either. Similar to the PRISM scandal, Obama appears to be an aloof boss and a poor manager.

This debacle will probably be soon forgotten once the software repairs have succeeded in a couple of weeks. Many experts still hope that Obamacare might actually work, causing any remaining resistance to crumble down. If, however, error messages continue to dominate healthcare.gov, Obama will need to bury all hopes of having a successful second term.