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CAPITOL PERSPECTIVES The Disastrous Launch Of Obamacare President ObamaÕs most ardent supporters now con- functional areasÓ in nearly every aspect of the exchange and cede that the rollout of Obamacare has been disastrous. was unlikely to be prepared by Oct. 1. Washington Post commentator and Obamacare booster The administration repeatedly analogized the ACA Ezra Klein stated that the launch of Obamacare Òis not (Affordable Care Act) implementation debacle to the iniglitchy, not troubled, but a failure.Ó He concluded that tial glitches in the Medicare Part D drug benefit in 2006 ÒThe Obama administrationÕs top job isnÕt beating the that could be easily addressed and overcome. Jay Carney, Republicans. It is running the government well. On this Ñ spokesman for the White House, said, ÒThere will be the most important initiative theyÕve launched Ñ theyÕve glitches in the rollout of this as there have been in every run the government badly.Ó program. A good reference point is Medicare Part D, which Liberal comedian John Stewart grilled HHS Secretary caused a huge amount of consternation among consumers Kathleen Sebelius and commented that it would take less when it was initially rolled out.Ó time Òto download every movie ever made than sign up But David Brailer, who worked as HHSÕ first national for Obamacare.Ó Indeed, two weeks into its launch, the coordinator of health information technology during the healthcare consultancy Advisory Board found launch of the Medicare drug benefit in 2006, that just 5,000 people enrolled in Obamacare pointed out that the administration should across the 36 states that rely on the troubled have anticipated that the federal exchange HealthCare.gov federal exchange website. The would trigger a rush of Americans onto the administration has refused to release its own website, either as onlookers or outright buydata Ñ it likely does not even want to know. ers. In an interview with the Washington Post Only a trickle of the 15 million individuals he noted the exchange was built to accomwho visited the website in the first couple modate 50,000 to 60,000 visitors at a time of weeks were able to actually enroll in a Ñ fewer than half as many as the enrollment John McManus, plan. Some individuals were able to register site for Medicare drug benefit could handle, The McManus Group but never able to log in even after numerand at a time when use of the Internet is more jmcmanus@mcmanusgrp.com ous attempts over a period of weeks. Others ubiquitous. received a message to try later or just faced When Medicare Part D was being designed, a blank screen. As a result, the number of visitors to the establishing a working software architecture was a priorfederal governmentÕs HealthCare.gov website plummeted ity, and the enrollment portal was online and being tested 88 percent between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, according to a new weeks in advance. The CMS plan finder worked for the analysis of AmericaÕs online use. vast majority of the millions of Medicare beneficiaries who Just as troubling, for the few who have been able to selected a drug plan of their choice, enrolled, and now enroll, plan premium and coverage information has been receive drug coverage with little incident. unreliable. Insurance companies report that some enrollCarneyÕs analogy is unfounded and only furthers the ment files were sent to the wrong insurer, and others have administrationÕs dismissive approach to addressing the received inadequate income information from the govern- fundamental shortcomings of the ACA statute and its ment to determine the enrolleeÕs subsidy and premium. implementation. Clearly, knowing whether individuals are enrolled in your plan and calculating their premium are rather fundamen- FINDING COMMON GROUND COULD HAVE HELPED tal components of making the program work. A sensible solution that could have gained bipartisan tracWE SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED THESE PROBLEMS tion would have been to delay the rollout of the Obamacare Most frustrating of all, this still unfolding disaster was predict- exchanges for one year. But this would have required the able. As I reported in my column a couple months ago, a June Obama administration to acknowledge that it was unpreGovernment Accountability Office oversight report found that pared to actually implement the law. CMS was behind schedule in activities Òthat cross the core Of course, most Republicans had little incentive to 10 LifeScienceLeader.com November 2013