Will technology accomplish what the GOP could not?

[DinoDoc]

Probably the best move for the Republicans is to give the money to repair the boondoogle and try to get some embarrassing hearings going on the website details.

What would be the political risk you see from denying the additional funds and telling the President to enjoy his "settled law"?

 

[useless]

I saw the title and instantly thought the GOP made a massive technological breakthrough in disenfranchising even more people from voting.

 

[El_Machinae]

this point, beyond those with pre-existing conditions benefiting and young men losing out.

Young men who don't want insurance, but yeah. There's also the (potential) benefit of fixing Medicare in time, which would benefit young men in some ways. But that, along with 'oop you actually had crummy insurance, sorry' would be invisible to the majority of people.

I think a a general win would be to improve access to health care, generally. If people who were previously priced out of the insurance market are now able to procure coverage that can actually help them, I think that's a win. If people are able to upgrade essentially worthless insurance to something that could help stave off a medical bankruptcy, that's a win. If premiums fell, that probably a win, but hiking up premium costs on those who can probably afford it to spread out the benefits would be, in my mind, worth it.

So, what're the losses that would be disagreed upon from a rightwing/leftwing perspective? And what're the losses that honestly should be agreed upon?

 

[JollyRoger]

What would be the political risk you see from denying the additional funds and telling the President to enjoy his "settled law"?

That kind of attitude has worked politically so far, right?

 

[GoodGame]

Still better than the SimCity2013 rollout.

LoL, but by comparison the Spore website is still in operation.

But seriously, maybe Valve should lend Obama a helping hand.

 

[Puck Nutty]

I'm a little surprised that the Republicans haven't dined out on the fact that the contractor hired to build the site is...FOREIGN! Specifically, Canadian.

I guess all of the incompetent American web builders were too busy.

 

[JollyRoger]

Maybe because the Senator leading the charge against Obamacare is FOREIGN! Specifically, Canadian.

 

[Antilogic]

I heard that the top-notch tech personnel that Obama had running his 2008/2012 campaigns were forbidden from bidding on the contract to build the website (which ultimately opened it up for this Canadian firm win it), but I haven't found confirmation.

 

[DinoDoc]

That kind of attitude has worked politically so far, right?

My attitude wasn't the impetus behind the Defunding charge earlier. My attitude would have let the law go through unhindered on October 1st and not upstaged this debacle from having weeks of uninterrupted coverage.

 

[Kaitzilla]

What would be the political risk you see from denying the additional funds and telling the President to enjoy his "settled law"?

Additional funding will move fixing the website from "impossible" to "possible in a few months".

Denying the extra funding would allow the Administration to blame the Republicans for the website not working.

Shoot, some geniuses probably already believe that because of the 3 week government shutdown regardless of the years available to get it right.



Right now it looks like the individual mandate just got delayed 6 weeks.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...eadline-to-be-delayed-by-up-to-six-weeks?lite

Amid mounting criticism, the White House said Wednesday that it plans to soften the deadline for when Americans are required to purchase health insurance. The date by when Americans would be penalized for not having signed up for health insurance could be “slid” back by as much as six weeks, administration officials told NBC News.

But it was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the adjustment to a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act would need to be approved by Congress or could be done by the Department of Health and Human Services administratively.

As the law stands now, individuals are expected to begin the application process via HealthCare.gov by Feb. 15 to avoid a financial penalty when the deadline hits on March 31, since it generally takes about six weeks for the insurance to kick in.

 

[DinoDoc]

Right now it looks like the individual mandate just got delayed 6 weeks.

I would be interested in the legal argument that would allow the President to do that without Congress.

 

[Kaitzilla]

My attitude wasn't the impetus behind the Defunding charge earlier. My attitude would have let the law go through unhindered on October 1st and not upstaged this debacle from having weeks of uninterrupted coverage.

Heh, sounds like the "stop fighting it, let it burn" crowd.

Let's take a look at why New Yorker's premiums are going down and why everyone is so fearful of an insurance premium death spiral.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapot...e-obamacare-from-health-insurance-rate-shock/

Our story begins in 1992, during the third term of Gov. Mario Cuomo, the liberal lion of his day. In July of that year, Gov. Cuomo signed into law the most draconian health insurance regulations drafted in recent times. Insurers were barred from charging different rates based on age, gender, or health or smoking status, what wonks will call pure community rating. In addition, insurers were not allowed to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, a.k.a. guaranteed issue. The state mandated that all plans cover a specified set of benefits, and restricted certain cost-sharing practices.

Within four years, these changes resulted in a mass exodus of health insurers from the individual market, for all the reasons that will be familiar to regular readers of this blog. If you charge the same amount to healthy and sick people, and to young and old people, young and healthy people suddenly find themselves paying thousands of dollars for insurance they don’t need. They recognize this as a bad deal, and drop out of the market. Only the sickest people, who need the insurance, stay in the pool, leading prices to go up and up in an adverse selection death spiral.

Looks like New York implemented Obamacare 20 years ago and already had their price increase death spiral.
The only reason 27 year olds and everyone else's premiums dropped from $500 a month to $350 a month is because insurers think those young people will now be forced to buy insurance because of the $95 fine.
If it doesn't work out that way during the next year, they might go right back up to $500 a month.


The wild card is those federal subsidies. Is there enough carrot and stick to get everyone to sign up?
If there is a national price increase death spiral who knows how high premiums can go with the Federal government subsidizing the difference. Feel bad for the really poor who didn't get Medicaid expanded in their state.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I would be interested in the legal argument that would allow the President to do that without Congress.

Already did it once before?
http://www.rollcall.com/news/obama_delays_employer_mandate_in_big_win_for_business-226089-1.html

July 2, 2013, 6:14 p.m.


The White House is delaying the employer health mandate of the Affordable Care Act by one year, bowing to corporate pressure and sparking another round of calls from Republicans to repeal the law.
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote a blog post late Tuesday titled “We’re Listening to Businesses about the Health Care Law” to explain the decision.
“In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right. We are listening,” Jarrett wrote.
Jarrett said the administration will revamp and simplify the reporting process for employers, and in the meantime, delay the mandate by a year.

The law is whatever Obama decides to enforce really


Like those shut down Federal Parks.
It only took a few days to think up something when Democratic followers needed one for a rally and that WW2 vet thing flared up.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/08/immigration-rally-goes-forward-on-mall/

Mr. Litterst, of the park service, said that the rules are the same for the immigration rally as they are for any other group claiming to be exercising their First Amendment rights at national parks or memorials.

For instance, he said, anybody claiming this right can just show up at the war memorial and view it from the designated First Amendment area, he said; groups of 26 or more need a permit.

“Under the same First Amendment rights that are allowing Honor Flight veterans and their families to visit the veterans memorials on the National Mall, other groups will be granted access to the park for First Amendment activities in accordance with National Park Service established regulations,” he added in an email.

Asked to explain Mr. Stockman’s tweet, Stockman spokesman Donny Ferguson said by email that the only reason the World War II memorial was open to the veterans is because members of Congress were with them, and he said that the park service was acting under orders from the White House in formulating its policies.

It's the same idea behind why we stopped criminally prosecuting big banks after Lehman Brothers in 2008.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/big-banks-go-wrong-but-pay-a-little-price/

To put this in the proper perspective, Mr. Holder said, for the first time, that he has not pursued prosecutions of big banks out of fear that an indictment could jeopardize the financial system.

Whenever it becomes inconvenient, what is and isn't against the law gets thrown right out the window these days.

 

[Puck Nutty]

I heard that the top-notch tech personnel that Obama had running his 2008/2012 campaigns were forbidden from bidding on the contract to build the website (which ultimately opened it up for this Canadian firm win it), but I haven't found confirmation.

Never let the facts get in the way of scoring political points during campaign season.

 

[DinoDoc]

I heard that the top-notch tech personnel that Obama had running his 2008/2012 campaigns were forbidden from bidding on the contract to build the website (which ultimately opened it up for this Canadian firm win it), but I haven't found confirmation.

Officials feared that if they called on outsiders to help with the technical details of how to run a commerce website, those companies could be subpoenaed by Hill Republicans, the former aide said. So the task fell to trusted campaign tech experts.

Former official: Admin refused to bring in outside help for ObamaCare website for fear GOP would subpoena them

 

[Antilogic]

Former official: Admin refused to bring in outside help for ObamaCare website for fear GOP would subpoena them

This anonymous official's account does not seem to square with the facts. CGI Federal had a $90+ million contract to build the website, amongst the other vendors providing specific IT stuff.

 

[Kaitzilla]

That was in response to HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, being caught working with drug cartels. If they were brought down, it legitimately would cripple the international finance system. Lehman Brothers weren't even close to their level. It would be the banking equivalent of nuking China.

You really believe that big banker nonsense?
Bankers have been jailed all through human history up until 5 years ago. What changed?
The company can function just fine with 10-30% of its executives in jail.

 

[DinoDoc]

This anonymous official's account does not seem to square with the facts. CGI Federal had a $90+ million contract to build the website, amongst the other vendors providing specific IT stuff.

That seems to be a reference to Teal Media, which was founded by a former member of Obama’s campaign design team.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/design-firm-removes-all-reference-to-its-work-on-obamacare-f

However, a large number of companies were contracted to help with the construction of the website. The biggest share of the pie went to a Canadian company called CGI Group, operating as its subsidiary, CGI Federal.
(I think this alone should have set off alarms in Congress since the initials CGI are normally associated with the movie industry for fakery. Or perhaps Canada is trying to subvert American healthcare so its own health care system can invade from the north! The tanks of socialism may already by in motion!!)

Possibly the second largest amount of money went to a Maryland based company called Quality Software Services. This company was responsible for building the data hub which seems to have been a major source of the problems with Healthcare.gov
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...now-about-obamacares-error-plagued-web-sites/

However, there seem to be 50 some corporations which received contracts to assist with the launch of the website. Many seem to be firms with deep connections to the federal government:


http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/aca-contractors/

A list of the various companies, and the amount of their contracts, can be found at that link.

!

 

[Antilogic]

So we went from no outside help to something consistent with what I posted? At least we are back to reality now.

Maybe instead of just posting smiley faces, could you actually explain how your links form a cogent argument?

 

[DinoDoc]

So we went from no outside help to something consistent with what I posted? At least we are back to reality now.

Maybe instead of just posting smiley faces, could you actually explain how your links form a cogent argument?

The roll out is a disaster and I'm enjoying watching Democrats scurry about.