Six Weeks Later: Obamacare Implementation Getting More Painful

It’s been more than a month since the rollout of Obamacare.  The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has been warning taxpayers for years even before the law was implemented. The October 1^st launch of the Obamacare website saw some initial ‘glitches’ but for the most part the media coverage was minimal due to the competing story in DC about the government shutdown. However, a funny thing happened on the way to November, as the website “glitches” actually became serious deficiencies and soon the problems with the website began to expose the serious flaws in the preparation of this massive overhaul as well as the enormous cost to taxpayers. Unfortunately for Americans across the country, the website was just a preview of the pain that Obamacare would inflict on the public.  And now, six weeks later, that pain is being felt by millions of taxpayers and there doesn’t seem to be a happy ending anywhere near in sight.

First, let’s look at the cost to taxpayers for the federal exchanges. A recent report by Peter Gosselin in Bloomberg Government shows that the cost to build, as well as the late surge before the launch, and now bringing in new experts to help fix what isn’t working right, now shows that taxpayers footed more than $1 billion for the construction and subsequent fixes to the Obamacare website:

Although the GAO made clear that its study focused solely on the costs of implementing the federal exchanges and the data services hub, its $394 million tally for work through March 31 has been widely cited as the price tag for the entire launch of the law. But in looking at the full range of ACA-related contracts for just 10 firms, the BGOV analysis found more than $1 billion worth of contract awards.

In addition, the state-based exchanges are slated to cost taxpayers somewhere in the same ballpark of $1 billion. CBS News recently outlined the costs associated with the 15 state-based exchange websites:

Sources tell CBS News that the 15 states that have set up their own insurance exchanges used more than $1 billion to pay for their own Obamacare websites. That huge price tag, CBS News’ Jan Crawford reported on “CBS This Morning,” is being paid for by the federal government — courtesy of taxpayers — and some of these websites have also struggled to get off the ground.

The state-based exchanges are no stranger to controversy either, with access and privacy concerns causing more skepticism about the ability of Obamacare to even be able to get off the ground, let alone be a functioning system. In Minnesota, a lack of  ”basic security” is what auditors discovered. In Maryland, which was held up as a model for many other states, their exchange won’t be fully operational until April of 2014. Those are just two examples, but there are many states that are experiences problems that mirror the issues healthcare.gov has been plagued with including security shortfalls, privacy concerns, and functional delays. This comes at a cost to taxpayers who are footing the bill for the exchanges.

However, the biggest problem of the Obamacare rollout fiasco that Americans are facing is the mass cancellations that began shortly after the launch.  This is the problem that has been getting worse and worse as each day passes. The President, as well as elected officials who voted for the law and certain officials within the White House repeatedly promised Americans one thing before, during, and after passage of Obamacare: if an individual had insurance that they ‘liked’, they would be able to keep it, period. This promise has turned out to be anything but true and as of today there have been nearly 5 million policy cancellations in the individual market.

These cancellations are further problematic in that individuals who are trying to access the exchanges to try and find a new plan are met with the difficulties discussed above. When it comes to those who have actually managed to maneuver the minefield of healthcare.gov to actually find a replacement plan, the news is worse: they will pay more out of pocket costs for a plan that covers things they don’t need with higher deductibles than they had before. The tepid enrollment figures released yesterday by HHS further add to the question of whether or not this law will even be functional? Cancellations are dwarfing signups and that is an extremely troubling sign.

The worst part is that there are going to be more issues and more problems as the law and its hundreds of pages of regulations continue to be implemented daily. Taxpayers, consumers, and businesses deserve better and the broken promises of a functional website, unaffected coverage, and adequate privacy/security safeguards should be evidence enough that Obamacare continues to be the wrong approach.