The Republicans in congress seem to think that the not very functional Healthcare.gov website is their Watergate (since IRSgate, Benghazigate and FastandFuriousgate, among others, haven't panned out). And the corporate media seem to agree! Even John Stewart is piling on. The balky web site proves that the whole concept is unworkable, a trainwreck, and an embarrassment.
Well no. See, here's why this is not going to work as a campaign issue in 2014. They're fixing it. Day by day, they'll fix all the problems and then they will be done, and it will work just fine. And as Rachel Maddow explains via Ed Brayton, Social Security, Medicare and Medicare Part D all got off to rocky starts. Nobody remembers that now, and "Healthcare.gov didn't work right for a few weeks" is not going to be the basis of a a winning campaign in 2014.
People are worried, more substantively, that maybe those healthy young folks who we need to sign up will be discouraged by the crappy web site and we'll end up with adverse selection and a death spiral. Not to worry! The law is written so that we don't need them all to sign up right away. It would be a little bit wonky to explain in detail but basically, there's backup money and reinsurance built in to give us a year or more breathing space on that. Nice if a lot of them come in early, but not essential. Not a panic.
Here's a tip for Republican politicians: don't spend your air time making predictions of disaster that aren't going to come true, because reality will happen. Even the people who are getting ticked off now because their catastrophic coverage is being withdrawn will mostly end up happy when they find out they can get much better insurance, for not much more and maybe even cheaper if they qualify for subsidies. Just about everybody else, except for a few rich people like Ted Cruz who have cadillac plans (that will be taxed) will be better off. Even in Alabama! And they won't be communist slaves after all, either.
Once that actually, you know, happens, all the rhetoric of today will be gone the way of the snows of March. I mean, this is evident to me. What am I missing?
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I guess there ain't nothing you're missing :-) The alternate reality that the Republicans have constructed through FoxTrash and the Limbaugh-Hannity-Scalia-etc. Echo Chamber continues to be just that: an alternate reality. It don't exist, and it never did. But they forget that or--shockingly--don't know.
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