When it comes to our nation’s healthcare debate, I am left of center on the political spectrum. I believe we need universal healthcare, and the best way to implement universal healthcare is through a state-led program. Unfortunately, when the state leads a major reform, often it drags that reform on a bumpy road, with extra costs and extra headaches, meant to be ironed out as time goes on. The idea goes something like this: lets make the change, and adjust it as the real world (rather than theory) dictates we should.
It is important for the population, and particularly the opposition, to accept the fact that the government is going for the initial adjustment. Those who oppose a law must accept it as permanent, and then pursue adjustments to it after time has tested it. This “oppositional-legitimacy” is important, because without it, the flaws that exist in the system during the initial phase of a large state-led reform are dragged out and amplified. Thus, Republicans’ insistence to repeal the Affordable Care Act is simply destructive. The longer Republicans detest the law rather than try to fix the law, the more the minor problems within the law hurt America. Creating a sense of “oppositional-legitimacy,” then, was one of the most important functions of our government during the implementation of the ACA.
And that brings us to the debacle named Healthcare.gov. The rollout of the website was an essential step in the implementation of Obamacare. It was the moment when we collectively held our breath and waited for the clock to strike midnight.
Healthcare.gov’s failure thus undermines the political legitimacy of what the Obama administration is trying to accomplish. Sure, it is a headache in and of itself, albeit a relatively minor one. But where it really hurts the Affordable Care Act is in reinforcing the opposition’s lack of faith in the long term plan of the project. Here, the website’s shortcomings proved catastrophic.
Gallup shows that America as a whole approved of the law slightly more after the October 1 website rollout than before the rollout. Despite this, Republicans continued to call for a complete defunding of Obamacare. The website mistake provides evidence to conservatives that overall, Obamacare completely misses the mark. Rather than simply calling for small policy adjustments following implementation—ironing out the bumps—the opposition’s call for a total repeal has continued past the planned integration of the law into our society. Obstructionism has been magnified and extended in this case by the Obama Administration’s failure to implement the website correctly.
It will take much more time, money, and effort to not only repair the website but also to repair the political process surrounding this monumental healthcare law. This was the Obama Administration’s biggest mistake.