The glitches that could doom Obamacare

 debt ceiling and shutdown drama, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act or as it is commonly called Obamacare, on Oct. 1st has been a very big failure for the government. The website that was supposed to help people in 36 states register, has been plagued by glitches that have not allowed visitors to sign up or select plans. Originally the plan was for every state to set up their own healthcare exchange websites, but the conservative states governors refused setting up their own exchanges forcing the government to create one website for those states, heathcare.gov.

Building a fully functional website for the use of millions is no small challenge even when given around two years to build and sustain, but the failure of the administration especially the Health Department, was abysmal. Glitches are to be expected and growing pains are usual but complete shutdown mode and utter inefficiency are inexcusable. The taxpayers forked around 100 million dollars to create that website and being told that it has been shutdown for 42 hours, as was the case yesterday is upsetting and does not go a long way in getting people to like the law, a law whose popularity was actually on the rise during the debt crisis. The reporting on Obamacare is mostly centered on the glitches instead of the many benefits that the law offers like kids staying on their parents insurance until they are 26, no more preconditions and government subsidies for those who cannot afford health coverage.

The government has said that around 476,000 people have signed up for the law, an underwhelming number, and around half of those come from states with their own exchanges. The government is planning on giving the full number in November giving us a clearer picture. States exchanges websites, have shown to be much more functioning and have only suffered minor glitches. The target for the administration is to have seven million people enrolled in the program by March and going by these number form Oct. 1st, that goal seems impossible to achieve. The situation will only generate bad press for the law and give republicans ammunition to attack the law.

What this glitches are doing is completely overshadowing the content of the law. The Affordable Care Act, with its many imperfections, is still away to deal with the health care crisis that the country has and make sure that everyone gets a change to have heath coverage. Just because acquiring it is proving to be a problem does not mean that the product itself bad. Hopefully, the administration will find a solution to make the website even remotely functional and give people health care, like the law intended.