National Lampoon’s ObamaCare Vacation
December 20 | Posted by mrossol | ObamaCareWhen you’ve never done anything but organize communities, this is what you get.
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President Obama has responded to the ObamaCare debacle by bringing in Beltway liberal mastermind John Podesta as a senior West Wing hand, and he promptly announced his arrival by likening House Republicans to “a cult worthy of Jonestown” in an interview with Politico. The states running their own insurance exchanges are exacting more accountability for their ObamaCare failures.
Enrollment and technical dysfunctions and security breaches akin to the 36 federal exchanges continue to beset Minnesota’s operation, called MNsure. On Tuesday, April Todd-Malmlov, the exchange’s executive director since 2011, resigned under political duress.
The state’s problems are severe—4,478 have selected a plan so far—but were not severe enough to disrupt her two-week vacation in Costa Rica late last month with her partner, James Golden, who runs the state’s Medicaid program. Amid a political uproar, upon Ms. Todd-Malmlov’s return she was forced out by Democratic Governor Mark Dayton.
Poorly timed Caribbean R&R also sealed the fate of Rebecca Pearce last week. The chief of Maryland’s ObamaCare exchange absconded for the tonier destination of the Cayman Islands as her exchange floundered. We hear it’s lovely this time of year.
Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley promised his state would “lead the nation” on the Affordable Care Act and he is leading Minnesota by a click or two, with 5,179 sign-ups. Maryland’s performance glitches are still so atrocious that on Monday Mr. O’Malley said he’s weighing a Plan B that would desert Ms. Pearce’s handicraft and shift residents to the federal Healthcare.gov website. Yes, it’s that bad.
Out in Hawaii, Coral Andrews stepped down from her position running that state’s exchange on the same day as Ms. Pearce. Fewer than 500 people have enrolled thus far in the Aloha State’s exchange, despite having received $205,342,270 in federal exchange planning and establishment grants.
That sounds bad unless the point of comparison is Oregon, where enrollment stood at all of 44 people at the end of November. The Beaver State’s $303,011,587 in grants in hand works out to about $6.9 million a head. Enrollment since has improved to 7,597 as the state abandoned trying to fix the digital site and moved to all-paper applications and direct insurer recruitment. Rocky King, the functionary responsible for that anachronism, was placed on extended medical leave this month.
Is Mr. Podesta or Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius due for a holiday? A flap over an inopportune vacation might be the only thing that would force the White House to hold someone responsible for ObamaCare.
National Lampoon’s ObamaCare Vacation – WSJ.com.
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