So it is now eleven hours after the deadline set by president Obama to have the Obamacare exchange website up and running well enough that 80% of all users get what they need without problems. What's the status?
According to the government spokesperson, despite Obama setting a deadline, "This is not a magic moment." The guy who was brought in so that there would actually be someone overseeing the corrective work says only that the site is much better than it was on November first. If you remember where things were on that date, you can understand why announcing that things have improved is not much of a vote of confidence in the system. Basically, it is like the EMTs at an accident scene rushing a critically injured person to the hospital and on the way saying that things are better because they reduced the bleeding.
As of now, nothing has been done to secure the confidential information that individuals input on the website. It remains the world's largest marketplace for identity theft, even if it does not sell many health insurance policies. We will have to wait and see if the constant crashes of the site continue.
The real problem, however, is not the ups and downs of the website. That is a problem of gross incompetence in managing the roll out. At some point, it will eventually be fixed. No, the real problem is that the policies being sold are expensive and substandard. Obama promised that we would all save $2500 per family; for the vast bulk of the people, that was a blatant lie. There will be no savings; there will only be increased costs. My own situation is such that I could get a policy which would cost roughly what I pay now, but the problem is that the coverage would be much less. (Interestingly, this is a slightly different result from what I found a month ago.) My current policy covers prescriptions from the very first one. The Obamacare policy covers prescriptions after a $6000 deductible is reached. What that means is that in the real world, I have no prescription coverage. My current policy covers doctor visits and hospitals which are in the network from the very first one. The Obamacare policy covers in network doctors and hospitals only after that same $6000 deductible. The truth is that the price of medical care actually went up by that $6000 under Obamacare.
And then there is the problem of which doctors are part of the network. I am diabetic and need the services of an endocrinologist a few times each year. I looked for that type of specialist in the list of physicians in the Obamacare plan and found that the closest one was about half an hour away from my home if there is no traffic. In Fairfield County where I live, there is always traffic, so the doctor is more likely about an hour's ride from my home. To compare this with my current plan, I did a search for endocrinologists in that plan who were located closer to my home than the closest one in the Obamacare plan. There were 22 such doctors in my current plan. Think about that. The Obamacare plan is so poor that I will have to pass up at least 22 endocrinologists and go to yet another one who is far away and whose credentials seem to be nothing special. Remember "if you like your doctor, you can keep him"? Well, it just ain't so!
This mess just keeps on getting worse.
According to the government spokesperson, despite Obama setting a deadline, "This is not a magic moment." The guy who was brought in so that there would actually be someone overseeing the corrective work says only that the site is much better than it was on November first. If you remember where things were on that date, you can understand why announcing that things have improved is not much of a vote of confidence in the system. Basically, it is like the EMTs at an accident scene rushing a critically injured person to the hospital and on the way saying that things are better because they reduced the bleeding.
As of now, nothing has been done to secure the confidential information that individuals input on the website. It remains the world's largest marketplace for identity theft, even if it does not sell many health insurance policies. We will have to wait and see if the constant crashes of the site continue.
The real problem, however, is not the ups and downs of the website. That is a problem of gross incompetence in managing the roll out. At some point, it will eventually be fixed. No, the real problem is that the policies being sold are expensive and substandard. Obama promised that we would all save $2500 per family; for the vast bulk of the people, that was a blatant lie. There will be no savings; there will only be increased costs. My own situation is such that I could get a policy which would cost roughly what I pay now, but the problem is that the coverage would be much less. (Interestingly, this is a slightly different result from what I found a month ago.) My current policy covers prescriptions from the very first one. The Obamacare policy covers prescriptions after a $6000 deductible is reached. What that means is that in the real world, I have no prescription coverage. My current policy covers doctor visits and hospitals which are in the network from the very first one. The Obamacare policy covers in network doctors and hospitals only after that same $6000 deductible. The truth is that the price of medical care actually went up by that $6000 under Obamacare.
And then there is the problem of which doctors are part of the network. I am diabetic and need the services of an endocrinologist a few times each year. I looked for that type of specialist in the list of physicians in the Obamacare plan and found that the closest one was about half an hour away from my home if there is no traffic. In Fairfield County where I live, there is always traffic, so the doctor is more likely about an hour's ride from my home. To compare this with my current plan, I did a search for endocrinologists in that plan who were located closer to my home than the closest one in the Obamacare plan. There were 22 such doctors in my current plan. Think about that. The Obamacare plan is so poor that I will have to pass up at least 22 endocrinologists and go to yet another one who is far away and whose credentials seem to be nothing special. Remember "if you like your doctor, you can keep him"? Well, it just ain't so!
This mess just keeps on getting worse.
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