A Few Borrowed Words From Mark Twain About The State Of Obamacare

Simply put, its death has been greatly exaggerated--both by the Republicans, and the MSM allies.

Let's begin with the big story of November--the ACA Web site, and its technical problems.  I'm not an apologist for those problems.  If anything, as an ardent supporter of health care reform, I am furious with the inability of HHS to not have this up and running on time and perfectly.  Secretary Sebelius and her colleagues knew for four years that they were going to have to do this, and have no excuse.  This is not about whether government Web sites can work; anyone who ever uses the IRS web site knows that it is possible for a Federal agency to have a Web presence with a very high degree of functionality.  And, as an attorney, I use the IRS site on a frequent basis.  If the ACA Web site had anything close to the functionality of the IRS site, we'd already be having a very different conversation about Obamacare right now.

But, as it turns out, most of the problems with the site have been, or are well on their way to being fixed.  This is even true of a new one that has cropped up recently--i.e., the transmission of applicant information from the site to insurers.  Again, this does not justify the initial problems, and an investigation as to the nature and source of those problems is fully justified (yes, even if it is led by Republicans).   But it also does not justify a wholesale repeal, or even a scaling-back of the ACA or its provisions, many of which have already gone into effect and are, in fact, quite popular.

And the proof of the success of the site fixes are in the enrollment numbers, which show that more people signed up in the first two days of this month than in all of October.  Those aren't the only numbers showing that Obamacare is working; its estimated cost has actually gone down.  When was the last time anybody said that about any government program?

And, at the local level, it is even easier to see how well the ACA is working, particularly in states where local officials are working with the law and not against it.  As for its critics on the left (including me), who have argued and continue to argue for a single-payer system, take a look at Vermont.  I believe that the ACA will become the political Trojan Horse that brings single-payer health insurance into this country for good.

Perhaps this is why public opinion has turned in a more favorable direction for Obamacare.  And why those on the left, who saw the ACA as a sellout of the single-payer cause, are changing their tune.  And why even some Republicans like this one are changing their tune as well.  Perhaps, in the latter case, it's just as well:  they have no alternative of their own.  And their desperation to stop the law is showing in the nature of the tactics they are now turning to.  Fake Web sites?  Really?  What an irony:  fake Web sites to stop a program dependent upon a gradually improving one.

As Carl Sagan might have put it, health care is no longer a theory, but a fact.  And it's not going to go away.  The GOP would do themselves and the rest of us a favor by canning the games, and serving their country by helping, not hurting, the implementation of a law whose time is long overdue.