Recent polls reveal that the reputation of President Obama and his signature healthcare law continues to suffer amongst the American people.
According to a recent poll from Fox’s pollster, 60 percent of Americans believe the ObamaCare rollout is “a joke,” while a CBS News survey reports that just 12 percent of the public says the launch has gone “well.”
Though the White House has not released official numbers detailing how many Americans have enrolled in the new healthcare program during the initial period of open enrollment, others report that the numbers are significantly lower than expected.
Some analysts assert that the poor enrollment is a result of coding and design problems connected to the website. Additionally, UnitedLiberty.org contends that the “decision to put income verification at the start of the enrollment process, thus allowing potential enrollees to see subsidy eligibilty so they wouldn’t be scared off by rate shock” was another reason the exchange site experienced issues.
And the Daily Mail asserted, “The low numbers also reflect a level of technological frustration on the part of Americans whose attempts to investigate their new health insurance options have been met with crashes, error messages and interminable delays.”
The failed ObamaCare website should provoke ire from the American people, considering its cost.
“HealthCare.gov is an unmitigated, $400-million disaster,” declared Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). He continued,
Deadlines have been repeatedly missed. The databases that store sensitive medical and financial information aren’t secure. Those attempting to enroll in health care exchanges have been unable to do so due to technical “glitches.” Worse still, these same individuals will be slapped with a penalty tax for being uninsured. If the federal government is unable to manage this website, how can they possibly manage our country’s health care system?
The website cost three times as much as anticipated by the administration, notes NBC News.
The site was designed to serve as many as 50,000 people per hour, a figure that is now being heavily criticized as it fails to address the needs of the 50 million uninsured people in the country, with an additional 15 million who are currently buying insurance on the individual market and will have to change.
According to the Fox News poll, 49 percent of Americans believe that those responsible for the failed launch should be fired, with 38 percent opposed to that.
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson seems to agree, as he recently lamented the fact that no one has been fired over the massive website failures. “That’s the problem in government today. People are not held to account,” said Nelson.
Likewise, former Obama chief of staff Bill Daley responded to calls for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ termination with an analogy that is not likely to sit well with the Obama administration. “To me, that’s kind of like firing Captain Smith on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. It’s not going to do much right now,” he said.
He added that the launch of the exchanges is a “big embarrassment” for the administration, and said that HHS should consider a change in leadership after the website is “straightened out.”
But not everybody is willing to concede that the ObamaCare rollout is a Democratic failure. In an appearance on Morning Joe, former presidential contender Howard Dean said that the Republicans are to blame for the failed rollout because they delayed everything they could.
He went on to blame Republican governors who decided against their own exchange systems. “The problem is they shouldn’t have done a single-size-fits-all for the 36 states,” he continued. “Partly, I have to say, they had to do that because the Republican governors refused to accept exchanges.”
Dean went on to downplay the problems plaguing the websites, saying the glitches are “not big.”
Furthermore, according to polls, 92 percent support the premise behind the “Vitter Amendment” and oppose the congressional exemption from ObamaCare.
The congressional waiver from ObamaCare prompted the National Review’s Michael Cannon to write, “America has a two-party system. But it’s not Republicans versus Democrats. It’s the ruling class — Republicans and Democrats — against everyone else.”
Further, nearly as many Americans are accusing the Obama administration of deepening the divide in Washington rather than mending it. The majority of Americans polled support an elimination of the healthcare law. The poll reveals that Independents favor trashing the law by a 30-point margin.
The fiasco surrounding the launch of ObamaCare, as well as the partial government “shutdown” over ObamaCare, has prompted the president’s job approval rating to drop, even though more people seem to be blaming the Republican Party for the shutdown.
Hot Air reports, “Obama’s approval rating is underwater (41/53 — down from 45/49 three weeks ago), and scraping rock bottom among independents (30/57). Obama’s personal favorability rating is also upside-down (45/50), another number being dragged down by independents (30/60).”
Overall, the poll seems to show that no one in government is particularly favored by the American people. In fact, when asked “if members of Congress were replaced with random people walking down the street, do you think those everyday Americans could do a better job handling the country’s problems than Congress, or not?” the results were quite close, with 46 percent responding in favor, and 47 percent opposed. Sixty-four percent assert that they would consider voting for a third party presidential candidate in the future.
