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Obama talks ACA

The health insurance marketplace put in place by the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” opened for business on Oct. 1.

A website, healthcare.gov, has been set up to help people sign up for health insurance. The intention is to allow uninsured customers to easily shop through the health care options available to them and to expedite the process of signing up for insurance plans which would begin on January 1, 2014. However, there have been many complaints regarding the website’s functionality and ease of use, and horror stories of people spending weeks attempting to register for insurance with no success are not uncommon. President Barack Obama acknowledged these problems in a speech at the White House Rose Garden on Monday, October 21.

“Of course, you’ve probably heard that HealthCare.gov…hasn’t worked as smoothly as it was supposed to work. And the number of people who have visited the site has been overwhelming, which has aggravated some of these underlying problems,” said Obama. He emphasized that he was very frustrated with the issues plaguing his greatest legislative achievement: “Nobody is madder than me about the fact that the website isn’t working as well as it should, which means it’s going to get fixed,” said Obama, inciting a few laughs.

Obama spent some time discussing the diligence of the repair effort the White House is mounting, indicating that they have the best talent working overtime to fix the website. He also mentioned many examples of successful usage of the website to acquire the “product.” During the speech, the president repeatedly referred to the health insurance plans set up by the ACA as a “product.” He drew an interesting analogy comparing the website where one purchases insurance to a long checkout line of a grocery store. As evidenced by the twenty million hits on healthcare.gov and the half a million consumers who have submitted applications through the marketplaces already, there is a high demand for the “product.” Except here, the supply is infinite — the insurance will not run out.

Obamacare, unfortunately, has not brought itself a sparkling reputation. The main reason the government was shut down was the disagreement over funding for the ACA. Republicans refused to agree to a continuing resolution, which is basically an extension of the previous year’s budget, for next year that provided funding for the enactment of the ACA. When last year’s continuing resolution expired, the government had not agreed on a new one, so the government had no money and was forced to shut down. But since the law is in effect and most funding for Obamacare comes from sources that continue in the event of a government shutdown, the ACA still functioned during the shutdown. In fact, according to a survey by Gallup, Americans now oppose Obamacare less than they did in August.

In his speech on the Oct. 21, the president remarked on the other facets of the ACA as well. Most people do not even have to deal with the faulty website, since 85 percent of the country already has health insurance. The website is primarily for those who are purchasing health insurance plans. Obama explained that people who already have health insurance benefit from the ACA, sometimes without even knowing it. Some new consumer protections of interest include preventive care, for instance free birth control and mammograms, and the provision that young people can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26.
Obama invited 13 people who either already had or will register for Obamacare to stand behind him during his speech. Interestingly enough, only three of the 13 had actually managed to register successfully. Near the end of the speech, a pregnant woman standing behind Obama nearly fainted. Obama assisted her until further help came. A full round of applause greeted Obama before he finished his speech.
Since the speech, the White House has announced that the website’s issues should be fixed by the end of November, providing a timeline for the completion of the technical work.

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