healthcare.gov

This past Saturday, I went to the Healthcare.gov website just to look around. With all the wailing and moaning, I was curious if it was working in Texas.

In very little time, I set up an Account for myself and my wife, answered several questions and was done within about 10 minutes.  The last message I received was that my Application for "Individual and Family Coverage" was "in progress".

On Sunday, the website was down again.  I couldn't log in.  

This morning, it's working again.  I logged in and see a message that my Application is still "in progress."

We really don't need insurance through this marketplace, but I am curious as to how much it might cost when and if we do need insurance this way.  

The wife and I are considering retiring from our jobs, and with "no income" we should be eligible.  The cost and benefits of various plans will help us determine when we might retire.  I can get health insurance through my company after retirement, but instead of paying 20% of the cost, as I do now, my share, for the same level of insurance, would increase to 45%.  That would run us in the ballpark of $750/month.  If I can get insurance cheaper thru the ACA, we'd go for it.

Have you noticed that those states that set up their own healthcare exchanges are reporting very few issues?  People are setting up accounts, sending in applications, and in many cases, are signing up for insurance.

My state, Texas, however, is run by a bunch of troglodyte Republicans who refused to set up their own marketplace OUT OF SPITE.  Those states that refused to set up their own exchanges, and thereby having the feds do it for them, ALL HAVE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS AND/OR LEGISLATURES, and they are experiencing the bulk of the problems.  

So, you can't blame Obama for all of this.  A large share of responsibility falls on these RED STATE ASSHOLES who want to deny poor people health insurance.

The prime contractor for the federal marketplace, CGI Federal, has a lot of federal contracts, and they have a very mixed bag of results. Why they got this no-bid contract is somewhat of a mystery.  

It appears to me that the federal marketplaces have been somewhat INTENTIONALLY SABOTAGED from within and without.  There is some evidence of Denial of Service attacks on the website in its first few days.  Why would this surprise anyone?  Republicans have fought tooth and nail to kill Obamacare since Day 1. 

Obama needs to fire CGI and hire a firm with a good track record.  And then we'll likely see serious improvement.