If you have an internet connection and you live in the United States of America, you have read the awful coverage that the Affordable Care Act has been getting. Most of the coverage was geared towards the faulty and very malfunctioning website, people were unable to sign up or pick plans, the site froze and generally was awful. That coverage of the glitches was giving the entire law a very negative image, and was reviving the Republican party that had been pretty decimated by the debt ceiling showdown. With his approval ratings in free fall and the threat of the Democrats losing the Senate in 2014, President Obama and his administration announced that they had given themselves a November 30th deadline for the website to be close to fully functioning.
On December 1st, which is really a day late, the administration announced that the website was now very functional, according to them, the site will work for about 90% of people. The website will now be able to accommodate 50,000 people are the same time and 800,000 people in a day. The whole experience now takes between 20 to 30 minutes signing up and is much smoother. The website also has four lanes instead of the only two it had at the opening and they have also created a queuing line. Those are all great steps, but it also brings great questions. Around 630 million have been spent on the website, shouldn't all of this have been present at the get go? Really, it is astounding to see the level of incompetence from the administration on this front, they had over a year after the Supreme Court ruling, hundreds or millions to spend on it and they came up with such a malfunctioning website? The president has touted the ACA as his main achievement, he should have kept a tight ship and kept himself very involved in the situation.
The coverage on the improved website has been great and will go a long way to heal the public perception on the ACA. And as more people sign up, and they are able to pick up coverage they will be able to see the need of the law, and the genuine good intention behind it, to provide affordable insurance for everyone and curb the ever increasing health care cost in this country. The Democrats can also have a product that is somehow functioning to defend and to hang their hopes on. The glitches were too damning and were threatening to derail them and the president for the remainder of his term. With the malfunctioning behind them, the president can now focus on working with insurers to make sure that they don't continue cancelling to many policies, he can also continue work in improving the actual law rather than just the website.
This is a very good step for the President and his administration, the Affordable Care Act and the people of this country. This is not the end, there are more battles to fight and more work to be done in bettering the ACA, but at least it will be without this major hurdle and it now stands a chance. Today is an optimistic day.
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