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Rubio: Delay ObamaCare Mandate Until Computer Problems Are Fixed
By Senator Marco Rubio
Tampa Bay Times
October 23, 2013
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/rubio-delay-obamacare-mandate-until-computer-problems-are-fixed/2148762
From long-term unemployment to being stuck in jobs that do not pay enough to live on, many Americans today are already facing unprecedented worries. Now, adding to their daily concerns is a new requirement under ObamaCare that forces all Americans to sign up for health insurance or else the Internal Revenue Service will come after them to collect a tax penalty.
In recent weeks, concern over this mandate has grown because of the federal government’s failure to provide a functional website where people were supposed to buy insurance. Visitors to the ObamaCare website have encountered numerous technical problems, errors and crashes. For some who have managed to get through these technical snares, they have been erroneously registered into the system multiple times, leading to the threat of double billings. And the Spanish-language website, where many Hispanics intended to buy health insurance, has yet to even be launched.
All of this has eroded the public’s confidence in the federal government’s ability to deliver on basic promises. And it has demonstrated how easily a government rapidly growing beyond its means can outpace people’s ability to deal with the burdens that come with it.
Recently, I visited the healthcare.gov website myself and encountered many of the same problems that others have reported, including lagging response times and crashes resulting in dead-ends. In fact, the problems have become so widespread that Consumer Reports has advised Americans to stay away from the site until the problems are resolved.
It has come to light that even before the site was launched, the Obama administration was warned that the system wasn’t ready, yet they proceeded anyway. And the response to this chaotic rollout has left much to be desired. They have chalked up many of the site’s problems to unexpected high traffic, even though healthcare.gov doesn’t come close to having the number of unique visitors that access scores of popular, privately run sites every day. This week, they promoted a 1-800 help line for people to sign up for insurance, asking Americans to revert to a 1980s-style enrollment process.
And yet, despite all these problems, people are still expected to comply with the mandate as scheduled, even though a “technology dream team” is now being afforded more time to fix the problems. It’s unfair and unacceptable that ObamaCare’s web developers are getting more time to deliver a functional website, while the American people are being denied an extension that would help them avoid tax penalties and an IRS problem.
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