HealthCare.gov Part 1 - Presidential Arrogance




There are examples of government-run health care failing in other countries. However, those failures should never have deterred the United States from implementing its own health care system. Just because England and Canada’s health care systems are less than great, that doesn’t mean America’s version was doomed to failure. What has doomed America’s version to failure is the same egomaniacal attitude that propelled a Hawaiian kid to the oval office. President Obama believes he is always right, and that is a wonderful trait to have in a leader because that confidence inspires faith in followers, but that always-right attitude needs to come from something more than ignoring what other people say. Unfortunately, the Hindenburg-sized catastrophe that is healthcare.gov has revealed the President’s confidence to be nothing more than arrogance.

The rollout of HealthCare.gov has been an unmitigated disaster with finger pointing all-around. On October 31, it was reported that the government had reached out to Google, Oracle and Red Hat for help fixing HealthCare.gov. Asking these three software titans for help shows the administration is aware that it doesn’t have the answer for every problem, except it actually shows the opposite. The request for their help should have happened three years ago when the bill first passed, but it didn’t. President Obama declared the ACA the signature of his presidency; he should have put everything he had into ensuring the smooth rollout of every step of this process, even if it meant calling in personal favors from Larry Page. Refusing to ask for help from the beginning just reveals how little the President thinks of others opinions and experiences. I love that Obama knows he’s right, I just wish his attitude was being backed by meetings with people more knowledgeable than his mirror.

Failing to successfully launch a website does not bode well for the Affordable Care Act as a whole. If the administration was unwilling to ask the best people for help with its website, how can we realistically believe they asked the best people for help with any other part of this legislation? You don’t get the benefit of the doubt with an undertaking this big, especially when similar ones have had mixed results in other nations. Tell us that the ACA is better than everything else, but then put in the time to make sure that it is. The President needs to do a better job of asking for help when he needs it; otherwise we might not be able to tell his arrogance apart from his ignorance.

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