Obamacare – Another Government Program

There have been numerous stories about the major computer glitches with the Obamacare website.  Some are claiming that it is because there are far greater numbers of people going to the site than were expected, although we don’t really know that this is the case.  But even if it were true, did they really not expect so much traffic in a country of over 300 million people where everyone is essentially forced to buy health insurance or pay a major penalty?

(As a side note, I don’t mind referring to the legislation as “Obamacare”.  Obama said in one of the debates last year that he accepted it and wasn’t offended by the term.  I would still use the term, but Democrats shouldn’t complain about the term if Obama himself accepted it.)

So all of the excuses are flowing out from the Obama administration, some of the media, and many Democrats.  But it is also interesting that a lot of Democrats are getting more quiet about Obamacare, as some people will never admit that it is a disaster, but don’t know what to say to defend the program at this point.  There are always excuses and some of them may be partially true.  Some people say that heads should roll.  Some people are wondering who was in charge of the programming and the website.  Unfortunately, this all misses the point.

Obamacare is a classic government program.  It simply doesn’t work and it won’t accomplish its stated goals.  When you use the initiation of force in order to solve problems, you will usually end up with more problems.  It will lead to unintended consequences.  It often leads to the exact opposite of what it was supposed to accomplish.  In other words, instead of cheaper and better medical care, we will likely end up with far more expensive medical care and far worse medical care.

Compare this government program to what would occur in a free, voluntary market.  A company releasing a new product is not going to release a product that doesn’t work or doesn’t come close to functioning as it should.  Actually, it is possible that a company could release a terrible product, but that company will quickly find itself out of business, or at least pulling that particular product off the market.  If a person or business fails in its release of a product, then it is the owner or owners who suffer the loss, along with anyone who lent them money.  But the losses are incurred only by those who voluntary invested in the product in the first place.

With Obamacare, all of the taxpayers lose.  It was tax money (or borrowed money) that paid for the systems to be implemented.  When the website doesn’t work as it should, it is not as if the taxpayers get their money refunded.

Nancy Pelosi said we needed to pass the healthcare legislation in order to find out what was in it.  I still have no idea what is in it and I’m not sure that anyone does.  But it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the legislation would be a total disaster.  We are finding out a little bit more about what is in it and it seems to get worse every day.

I am still not convinced that Obamacare will ever be fully implemented.  Health insurance premiums are going even higher now and people cannot figure out how the whole thing works.  On top of this, the people who are trying to sign up are mostly not able to because of the website.

It will not be the Republicans who defeat Obamacare.  It will be Obamacare that defeats Obamacare.