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Ellison's Must Read of the Day

Ellison Barber
October 9, 2013

My must read of the day is "Many remain locked out of federal health-care Web site" in the Washington Post:

Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D-N.J.), who played a key role in passing the health-care law and has worked on its implementation, said he told White House officials early this summer he had been hearing from insurers that the online system had flaws.

"Nothing I told them ever surprised them," Andrews said in an interview. "The White House has acknowledged all along something this massive was going to have implementation problems."

Two allies of the administration, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the controversy surrounding the rollout, said they approached White House officials this year to raise concerns that the federal exchange was not ready to launch. In both cases, Obama officials assured them there was no cause for alarm.

This is astoundingly irrational.

The administration cared so much about making that Oct. 1 deadline that they were willing to put out a flawed product.

It reflects an illogical public relations strategy when it comes to the Affordable Care Act. Delay the employer mandate, but not the individual one—because for some reason delaying the individual mandate would be worse than delaying the employer mandate.

It has been said that the administration is more concerned with optics than with efficacy when it comes to Obamacare.

Well, they are failing on both counts.