The Bass with the Bow

If Government Worked Like Business
Marilyn B. Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, both insisted in July that the project was not in trouble. Last month, Gary M. Cohen, the federal official in charge of health insurance exchanges, promised federal legislators that on Oct. 1, “consumers will be able to go online, they’ll be able to get a determination of what tax subsidies they are eligible for, they’ll be able to see the premium net of subsidy,” and they will be able to sign up.

But just a trickle of the 14.6 million people who have visited the federal exchange so far have managed to enroll in insurance plans, according to executives of major insurance companies who receive enrollment files from the government. And some of those enrollments are marred by mistakes. Insurance executives said the government had sent some enrollment files to the wrong insurer, confusing companies that have similar names but are in different states. Other files were unusable because crucial information was missing, they said. (NYT, 10/13/2013)

If government worked like business, Tavenner, Sebelius and Cohen would be fired. 

Absolutely devastating article in the Times yesterday about the Obamacare rollout which deserves to be read in its entirety. No doubt Obama administration officials had some stern private words for Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger. We'd wager that the "Obamacare Back on Track After Shaky Start" article is already being prepared. 

But at least we have a glimmer of honest journalism for one day. From the same article:

Worried about their reputations, contractors are now publicly distancing themselves from the troubled parts of the federally run project. Eric Gundersen, the president of Development Seed, emphasized that his company had built the home page of HealthCare.gov but had nothing to do with what happened after a user hit the “Apply Now” button.

So here's a question: When will Democrats, similarly worried about their reputations, begin publicly distancing themselves from Obamacare?