As predicted, the rollout of ObamaCare has been full of glitches. And will be for months, as the president now admits.
First, North Carolina could have told everyone that the technological hurdles will be brutal. Our state has been revamping the computer system for Medicaid. Remember, that’s an existing system that covers part of one state’s population, so a system covering every American faces much bigger problems.
So after huge cost overruns, how long did it take to get the system up and running? Take a guess.
A decade. And it’s not clear whether it’s running well yet.
ObamaCare, aside from anything else, is simply not workable.
Most important, tech glitches are only a symptom.
Recently former Sen. Jim DeMint, now head of the Heritage Foundation, spoke at one of our events. He talked about Common Core Standards, but his comments apply even more to health care.
Most federal aid is “fool’s gold,” he said. What he said about Common Core applies to ObamaCare: “It’s like giving people a free bus ticket — to a bus that isn’t going to pick them up.”
Massive, centralized programs are doomed to fail, he said. “Command and control doesn’t work.” Only decentralized programs, with decisions made from the ground up, can succeed. “There are no federal programs that are providing quality.”
There are many problems with ObamaCare. But they can’t be fixed, for the real flaw is fundamental: It assumes that central planners can manage the intimate, complex matter of health care for 314 million Americans.
They can’t. They never can, no matter what technology they use. Check out “The Road to Serfdom” or other key conservative texts to find out more why centralized control doesn’t work and can’t work.
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