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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTP: Under Bush, Republicans Vigorously Defended Health Care Reform Despite Serious Glitches
Millions of Americans try to enroll in health care benefits during the first days of a new government health care program. They rely on indispensable government website that had been pitched as a high-tech way to sort through available coverage options. Theyre encountering countless glitches and technical errors: the website freezes, displays incorrect plan information and sends insurers erroneous reports.
Administration officials clearly caught off guard by the surge of technical difficulties respond to tens of thousands of complaints from angry beneficiaries and promise to fix every problem as quickly possible.
This sounds like the familiar story of the last few days of the Obama administrations rollout of the exchanges. But, actually, those quotes, and that scenario, are taken from the Bush administrations efforts to implement the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2005 and 2006.
Not only was Bushs rollout anything but smooth, but administration officials had some trouble getting the [online] tool up and running and had to delay its debut for weeks. Whats more, computer glitches caused low-income beneficiaries to go without needed medications and sent pharmacies the wrong drug information. Before it was all resolved, Dr. Mark McClellan, Bushs head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), appeared at hearings before the House Committee On Energy And Commerce, laying out the flaws in the laws implementation and detailing how the administration would address them.
As the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds its first hearing on the implementation of the the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, its worth noting that some of the very same Republicans who are lashing out against Obamacare, arguing that the botched rollout is proof that the government cannot implement effectively and should repeal the law entirely, gave the Bush administration a pass and urged Americans not to pre-judge such a complicated process. At least four of the Republicans still on the committee had argued that early implementation hurdles should not taint the entirety of reform:
REP. JOE BARTON (R-TX): This is a huge undertaking and there are going to be glitches. My goal is the same as yours: Get rid of the glitches. The committee will work closely with yourself and Dr. Mark McClellan at CMS to get problems noticed and solved. [Barton Statement via Archive.org, 2/15/2006]
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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/24/2828261/hearing-post/
GOP Hypocrites!
louis-t
(23,295 posts)They didn't? The Dickens, you say!