So last week I decided to go the healthcare.gov to see what it’s all about. On my first several attempts I was unable to get past the first screen because the site was overwhelmed, or under prepared. It was humorous to hear that the unavailability of the website shows how popular Obamacare is. It’s popular because everyone HAS to have it, not because everyone is choosing to have it.

After another week, I tried again and this time I was able to go through the steps to create my own account, which would then allow me to see what options I might have for coverage and what the costs would be. There are four to five screens of information required including three security questions I had to provide answers to in case I lose my password. I clicked on the button to create the account and watched the spinning circle for a few minutes before I was greeted with a “sorry, try again” message. So I clicked on try again and I was immediately taken back to the first screen to create my account. But now all the info I had just painstakingly provided was missing. I was supposed to do it all again with not assurance that I would get to where I wanted to be.

So today I tried it again, when through all the pages, answered all the questions and then I was greeted by this:

Apparently my desired username is taken, but they couldn’t tell me that when I created it and now I’m supposed to enter all the info AGAIN. There is no way a sane person would do business with this online entity unless they were being FORCED to do so.

This is a website that was supposed to cost $93 million and was reported to have cost as much as $634 million. Though now they have lowered that estimate to $500 million.

Forbes magazine gets it right when they say that the reason the site is so bad is because of politics.  That is, you cannot find out what your insurance rates are until you go through the account set up procedure.  Instead of being able to browse rates, like you can on einsurance.com, you have to set up your account first.  Then the government will be able to assess your qualification for a subsidy, thereby lowering the out of your pocket cost for insurance.  That makes it look like the insurance is less than it actually is as your neighbor helps pay for your insurance.  Of course, they can’t give you a good estimate of your eligibility because the president suspended the requirement for income verification, which was one of the reasons to use the IRS to vett insurance payments.

And then I thought about this as I was reading in the Houston Chronicle about new voter id laws going into effect here in Texas.  How can there be wails and moans about how the poor are being disenfranchised by the requirement to visit a DPS office to get a government id to be able to vote, and yet these same poor are required to have insurance through Obamacare that is only accessible through the internet?  Isn’t this more of a burden on them to have to go through the travails of accessing a site over and over and over again so that they can avoid paying a fine if they don’t have insurance.  I believe the poor and elderly are being disenfranchised by the Administration that wants to force them to purchase something through a means they should not be expected to have.  We may have to provide them all with smartphones and internet connections.  Oh wait, I forgot, Obama has already given them smartphones.

So I’m with Ted Cruz.  This is a disaster and it will only get worse.  We need to repeal Obamacare.  It is a weed in our nation that will continue to grow and take over the yard if we allow it to gain any ground.  Obamacare needs a good treatment of Round Up.