Friday, November 22, 2013

Why Obamacare is Failing

The short answer is that President Obama believes in government and fails to understand the conflict between human action and government edicts.

Like any banana republic dictator, Obama thinks he can lay down decrees and his vision will follow perfectly. What he fails to understand that in the real world people work to protect their own self  interest and this may mean attempts at going around the decrees.

Consider the President's statement that people would be able to keep their old health insurance policies. Obama was either lying or didn't understand that insurance companies would have to cancel policies that required additional types of coverage, decreed by the government, that would make the plans cost prohibitive. It's about people and companies acting in their self interest.

A new problem is developing for the president as others act in their own self interest.  It is the sick and elderly who are signing for Obamacare on the exchanges, and not the youth which Obama was bizarrely counting on, which is going to cause premiums skyrocket.

Then we have the grand failure of healthcare.gov, which is about putting a government person in charge who has no clue. Obama put in charge Kathleen Sebelius, who her entire life has been nothing but a political hustler. She was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1986. She was Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009. She was the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association. And she was chief lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. That's it, her entire resume.

Over the years, I have met many people who have attempted to raise money for various business projects. At the lowest ranks of such money raisers have been those who have a grand idea, but who had no idea of how they were going to execute such a project. These people NEVER get funded.

If we for a moment suspend reality and consider healthcare.gov just another start-up, with Obama and Sebelius attempting to raise venture capital money for the project, they wouldn't get far at all. The first question that would be asked of them is their backgrounds. Obama would say he was a community organizer and Sebelius would list her political positions. Not very promising start for two who want to launch a healthcare site.

Next, both would be asked if they had any experience in the healthcare sector?

The answer would, of course, be "No."

Then they would be asked if they had any experience in the insurance sector?

The answer, again, "No."

They would have then been asked if either had experience designing a major nationwide internet side.

The answer would have been, "No."

At that point, the VC would have smiled and said their project wasn't quite what the firm was looking for and shown them out the door.

What is different about business is that it is not about decrees but people at the top who have savvy and basic hardcore knowledge about what they are attempting to execute. Obama and Sebelius have none of this, when it comes to healthcare, and it shows in the sad launch of healthcare.gov.

Government decrees that fly in face of reality will always fail. Obama is learning this the hard way.

5 comments:

  1. Brilliant. Cuts to the core of it in very few words. Many copies going forth from here. Thanks!

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  2. "Government decrees that fly in face of reality will always fail."

    Yes, but it can take a very long time for that to happen. To quote Adam Smith "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation". It took Britain 150 years to hit bottom after losing The Revolutionary War. Social Security and Medicare are government decrees that fly in the face of reality and they are respectively 77 & 58 years old and still widely popular. For all we know they could go another 50 years before they collapse. The collapse of Obamacare could take that long too. In the mean time, we are screwed.

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  3. Actually, sebelius was also elected insurance commisioner in kansas. A position which is heavily lobbied by insurance companies, trial lawyers and other special interests to "regulate" in their favor.

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  4. The scariest thing in sebelius' resume is the brutal political vendetta she carried out against kansas attorney general phill kline for successfully prosecuting planned parenthood. The relentless political smack down is still playing out in kansas courts.

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  5. Obamacare is a big hit in Washington State where some 55,000 have signed up for Medicaid.

    Those who signed up will get "A Cadillac Package" at no cost to them: in addition to getting free physician services, free psychiatric services, free surgery services and free prescriptions, Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) now announces Benefit Changes As Of January 1, 2014 as follows ... http://tinyurl.com/ml4noxa ...
    Restores dental services, (one need not purchase Dental Insurance at a cost of $60/month/individual plan)
    Covers screening for autism for children up to 36 months of age.
    Covers naturopathic physicians providing primary care services.
    Covers oral contraceptives prescriptions for 12 months at a time.
    Expands providers of mental health services.

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