The message that greeted future patients who logged on to HealthCare.gov was, “Please wait. we have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we’re working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience.”
The message @ HealthCare.gov is a good metaphor for what will unfold under Obama Care: long lines precipitated by the inevitable inability of centrally planned exchanges to bring supply and demand into balance.
The Affordable Health Care Act’s motto will become, “Please wait, we have a lot of patients, and not enough of your money and everything else needed—doctors, supplies, equipment—to treat them.”
Obama, however, compared the inauguration of Obamacare—the website practically crashed, as will The Plan—to the bumpy “launch of iOS 7, the new mobile operating system released by Apple on September 18th.”
Obama was referencing a bug that came with the launch of iOS 7, the new mobile operating system released by Apple on September 18th. The bug allowed anyone to bypass an iPhone’s lockscreen and access their personal information and content. Apple released a patch for it a few days later.
“I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t,” Obama added. “That’s not how we do things in America. We don’t actively root for failure.” According to Obama, issues with the site have been caused by a heavy influx of new users and general launch bugs. Wait times on both the site and hotline have been longer than expected.
(HuffPo)
What an Ass With Ears (although Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld also failed to zero-in on why the comparison was so stupid, saying instead that the one item was a neat product that everybody wanted; the other not so much).
Nobody is forced by law to purchase or subsidize an iPhone or an iPad, or any other product produced by Apple.
UPDATED: Glenn Beck and his very funny team went to Healthcare.gov to see what gives. Not much:
When Glenn attempted to access the site, he was promptly greeted with the Internet equivalent of a “hold button.”
“I’m here, and I don’t know if you can get a shot of this… but I just went to Healthcare.gov and I’m on this exciting page right now: ‘Health insurance marketplace, please wait. We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we’re working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience.’”
Below is a screenshot of the message:
“The government is the only business that has actually come up with a ‘hold’ button on the Internet,” Glenn said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve got a hold button. Hope you don’t have anything really wrong with you. So I’m just waiting now. They have a lot of visitors on their site right now and they’re working to make your experience better.”
“We appreciate your patience. You are Number 477,326 in line,” Pat quipped. “Please continue to wait, as you will be taken in the order in which you arrived. Thank you for your patience.”
AdvertisementAfter being completely kicked off the site and told to “try again later,” Glenn finally reached the log-in page on Healthcare.gov.
“I just got a login. Oh my goodness. I refreshed. I tried again later, and it just… ‘New to healthcare.gov? Create an account. Log in.’ I think, well, I am new to healthcare.gov. So I should create accounts.”
Stu, meanwhile, was not quite as lucky.
“I was trying to log in as well. I just got a new message,” Stu said. “Would you like me to share it with you because it’s important for your healthcare. It’s ‘???.ee.shared.header.learn???’ followed by ‘ffeee.shared.header.getinsurance???’. That’s what came up on the screen when I refreshed. That is good. I feel healthier already.”
Pat was somehow able to avoid the ‘question mark, question mark, question mark’ error, but his experience was not anymore pleasant. “Now, this says ‘Get ready for the Marketplace.’ I’m at that page. It’s asking me a question, and I fit into none of these categories,” Pat lamented. “‘Do you want information on any of the following situations? This will help us provide material about coverage options.’ ‘Dependent under 18:’ No. ‘Self?employed:’ No. ‘Low?income coverage options:’ No. ‘Disability:’ No. ‘Pregnancy:’ No. ‘Veteran:’ No. ‘American Indian or Alaskan native:’ No. ‘Preexisting conditions covered’ and so there’s either yes or no, and those are the only options. I can’t click anywhere except ‘go back.’”
“Hold on. We’re trying to make your healthcare experience even better. Stand by,” Glenn joked. “Question mark, question mark, question mark.”
UPDATE II: “Worse Is the New Normal” by Mark Steyn:
So, as in banking and housing and college tuition and so many other areas of endeavor, Washington is engaging in a kind of under-the-counter nationalization, in which the husk of a nominally private industry is conscripted to enforce government rules — and ruthlessly so …
UPDATE III: “100 Unintended Consequences of Obamacare,” Trader Joe’s is at #80:
Even though it has previously provided health-care coverage for its part-time employees, an uncommon practice in the industry, next year Trader Joe’s will give employees who work less than 30 hours a week $500 to purchase a plan in the upcoming Obamacare exchanges. With federal subsidies and possible earnings from other employment, the company said, workers can find coverage that will be just as good. One employee described her soon-to-be lost coverage as “one of the best parts about the job,” and her reaction to hearing it would be dumped was “pure panic, followed quickly by anger.”
I’ve been paying higher deductibles and co-pays and know full well why this has come about. There is no free lunch. Perhaps, like Michelle Malkin, I too will lose my healthcare coverage. Nevertheless, I feel nothing but glee at any discomfort experienced by those who voted for Obama and lectured us about the glories of his proctology.