The Grand Illusion (or) "Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain!"

A lot of words have been spent over the last six weeks lampooning the rollout of the PPACA (a/k/a "Obamacare."Since my last post, we've gotten the Government's "Official Scorecard" as to how many Americans have actually signed up for the program. Let's just say the results were underwhelming. On Wednesday, Health and Human  Services noted that in the period ended 11/2/13, 106,185 people nationwide had "selected a Marketplace plan." Of those, only  about one quarter of those (26,794) were from the Federally run Marketplace. (Source)http://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2013/11/13/latest-obamacare-enrollment-numbers-heat-to-house-vote-on-friday/

But wait, as usual, there's an asterisk here: Those numbers represent those folks who have selected a plan or, basically, put it in their "shopping cart." Anyone who has ever bought anything online knows that it's not "bought" until you check out. In the "shopping cart" does NOT count.  This, however, is no surprise considering some of the voodoo economics and outright falsehoods that have been spread by the perpetrators of this disaster.

Last week, we talked about the problems with the roll out from the point of view of implementation. To be sure, the numbers above reflect the many and varied issues with Heathcare.gov, but seriously, 26,794 against a goal of 500,000? Really? And you really want these people in charge of 1/6 of the American economy? Someone should have been fired by now (and WOULD have been in the private sector.)

The other highlight of this week was President Obama finally accepting responsibility for SOMETHING. Well....Sort of. At the same time he was telling the American people "That's on us," for the failures of the website rollout, he was also saying he had no idea that the system was not ready. That sounds a little more like, "That's on us, but not on me." This quasi-apology has politics written all over it. By accepting some responsibility, he gives Democrats up for re-election next year at least SOME  political cover.

The other thing this does, is to shift focus away from his credibility problem. The early part of the week's news was dominated by "If you like your plan, you can keep it. Period." Wellll....What he REALLY meant to say was, "If you like your plan (and it conforms to all the new regulations and mandatory stuff we arbitrarily want you to buy even if you don't need or want it,) you MIGHT be able to keep it, as long as your policy has not changed since the passage of Obamacare." Its glorious redundancy aside, this trial balloon floated about as well as your average boat anchor. It even failed to pass the smell test among quite a few Democrats.

Apparently, this "misstatement" caught the attention of ABC and CBS, although their colleagues at NBC remained blissfully comatose. Hence, the need to trot the President out for a little damage control. Mea culpa with just a touch of arrogance.

As the story has gained traction, it's become pretty apparent that the President knew that all of the cancellations would be the end result of all the new policy mandates, many of which were add-ons after the initial legislation  was passed. Almost like it was planned that way.

Look, I've written several posts about the problems with the PPACA. My views, unimportant as they may be to anyone else, are no secret. The really fulfilling yet frustrating part of watching this circus is that what is happening is exactly what many of us predicted would happen if this monstrosity became law. Premiums that were supposed to go down are going up, just as anyone with a modicum of common sense could have predicted. People are losing their insurance rather than getting coverage. And it's possible that the worst of this is yet to come next year when the employer mandate kicks in. 

Fact is, when the businesses that employ 50-100 people start getting the dramatic premium increases or cancellation notices for their employees' coverage next fall, my guess is that a lot of them will opt for the penalty and have their employees fend for themselves. What will we do?

Fox News' token liberal Bob Beckel has been an open proponent of a single payer system, and President Obama has made no secret that that would be his choice. Are we coming to a day in the near future when the President strolls into the East Room and says, "The implementation of The Affordable Care Act has been such a mess that we are going to have to scrap it in favor of a single payer, (government controlled) system, for the sake of fairness. It's the only right thing to do." I can almost hear him saying it. And his minions falling into obeisance.

And, with that, the grand illusion of Obamacare will be complete. Game, set, and match to the "Wizard of Ob."

It's all well and good to talk about repeal or defunding of Obamacare, but what can be done in its place? I keep hearing about allowing insurance to be marketed across state lines to improve competition. How about some of you insurance geniuses start working up some real, honest to God numbers for everyone to compare. You guys are second only to car salesmen in your ability to jiggle numbers. Show me what my premium is going to be and how much I can customize my coverage, because it's almost a dead lock certainty that I'm not going to have much choice under the Obama alternative.

And, oh, by the way, you're not just coming up with a selling point, you're essentially fighting for your survival, since the Obama alternative would pretty much put the private health insurance business out of business. Heaven only knows what the long term effect of that might be.

Maybe we should be paying attention to that man behind the curtain after all...