Will Obamacare get its act together in time?

[The Mad Monk]

He heard it on the radio, and he's not a computer guy. I'm willing to give him a Mulligan.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

So far, the Affordable Care Act's launch has been a failure. Not "troubled." Not "glitchy." A failure. But "so far" only encompasses 14 days. The hard question is whether the launch will still be floundering on day 30, and on day 45. ...

We're now negative 14 days until the Affordable Care Act and most people still can't purchase insurance. The magnitude of this failure is stunning. Yes, the federal health-care law is a complicated project, government IT rules are a mess, and the scrutiny has been overwhelming. But the Obama administration knew all that going in. They should've been able to build an online portal that works.

Early on, President Obama like to compare the launch of the Affordable Care Act to Apple launching a new product. Can you imagine how many people Steve Jobs would've fired by now if he'd launched a new product like this?

Five thoughts on the Obamacare disaster

[Captain ******* Kirk]

[MrFun]

Yes. Obviously we can predict with our crystal ball, that say, five years from now, the ACA will be an utter dead failure based on the program's first two days of performance.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

1. The ACA is still an embarrassing failure two weeks after launch.

2. No one is saying we can predict how well the ACA will be performing five weeks from now, let alone five years from now. Nice strawman.

[Hauldren Collider]

HOLY SHIT Robert Gibbs is criticizing Obamacare? The man is like ****ing Baghdad Bob for Obama.

Things must truly be desperate.

[The Mad Monk]

...and now, a story that's on my local news today...

Obamacare ‘navigator’ in Kansas has outstanding arrest warrant
12:25 AM 10/14/2013

A woman with an outstanding warrant for her arrest is currently serving as an Obamacare “navigator” in Lawrence, Kansas.

Rosilyn Wells — the Director of Outreach and Enrollment for the Heartland Community Health-care Center (HCHC) – is “the only full-time Affordable Care Act navigator in Lawrence,” according to the Lawrence Journal-World.

Wells works as an “outreach and enrollment assister” for a division within the Department of Health and Human Services called Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). A press release for HRSA says its programs “complement and align with other federal efforts, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-funded Navigator program.” Her work involves enrolling people in the Affordable Care Act and helping them understand their choices, and it entails the same access to sensitive financial and health information as a navigator — leading observers to define “assister” as another name for “navigator.”

Wells was certified as an Obamacare navigator despite her financial history, which includes a bankruptcy in 2003, a 2007 civil charge from a local check cashing business called Midwest Checkrite for writing a bad check, being more than $1700 behind on her state tax bill, and having an outstanding arrest warrant in nearby Shawnee County. Wells lives and works in Douglass County.

Reached by phone, The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office would not elaborate on the specific charges related to Wells’ arrest warrant.

Navigators are creations of the federal government and they are paid to work closely with consumers — and their personal information — to help them navigate the newly-created Obamacare exchanges.

The Obamacare navigator program has fallen under heavy criticism for its privacy pitfalls, with the House Oversight Committee issuing a report only two weeks ago which warned that navigators would not be properly vetted to protect consumers.

The report pointed out navigators would have access to all sorts of personal data.

“[T]he main concern for consumers is the heightened risk of identity theft and financial loss from a poorly managed outreach campaign,” the Oversight Committee report said. “Navigators and Assisters will come into contact with a plethora of personally identifiable information (PII), including an applicant’s Social Security number, date of birth and income, as well as the PII of everyone in an applicant’s household.”

The Obama administration’s decision not to require background checks for navigators compounds the privacy risks, the Oversight Committee wrote.

“In part, substantial risks remain because the Administration decided not to require background checks and fingerprinting of individuals hired by Navigator and Assister organizations,” the committee wrote. “Under the Administration’s plan, unless states have already taken actions to protect their citizens, Navigators and Assisters are not prohibited from hiring convicted felons, including individuals convicted of identity theft or fraud.”

Additionally, Wells’ dual role as Outreach Director for Heartland Community Health Center (HCHC) in Lawrence and as the sole Obamacare navigator for the City of Lawrence could represent a substantial conflict of interest.

The federal navigator program has taken great pains to avoid hiring navigators who are in a position to refer business to their place of employment, according to Katrina McGivern of the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved in Topeka, KS, the primary care association of Kansas and a federal navigator grantee in the state.

“Certified navigators are required to help any consumer who requires assistance in the community,” McGivern told The Daily Caller, “whether they are a patient of the specific facility or not. Navigators are not allowed to refer consumers to any specific location to receive care. They are allowed to educate on options in their area.”

McGivern also told TheDC that all navigators must sign a “conflict of interest statement.”

Despite McGivern’s assurances, there remain plenty of reasons for concern. On the website for HCHC, there is a prominently featured advertisement on top for the new Obamacare exchanges, and the link to find out more information leads to a page for Wells, which includes her biography and contact information.

All her navigator work is done out of her office in HCHC, and HCHC has been recognized by HHS as a “Federally Qualified Health Center,“ which qualifies HCHC for enhanced Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement and at-cost drug pricing.

Furthermore, according to its 2012 annual report, HCHC is a 2012 grant recipient from HHS for $650,000 in so-called “Community Health Center” funding. Obamacare has provided $11 billion for the expansion of “community health centers.”

Health centers are community-based organizations which generally serve indigent populations with limited or no access to traditional health care. With Obamacare providing either free or reduced health insurance to much of this population, community health centers stand to benefit financially from Obamacare.

According to a June 2012 press release, the Department of Health and Human Services considers “community health center” expansion a key component for success in Obamacare.

Repeated emails and phone calls to Ms. Wells were left unreturned. An HCHC spokesperson declined to comment for this report.

Update: An earlier version of this article described Wells’ job title simply as “navigator.” In fact, her technical title is “outreach and enrollment assister,” a job with the same responsibilities as a navigator but a different titular designation within the bureaucracy.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/14/ob...rrest-warrant/

This is right in my neighborhood. How does it feel to know that insufficiently vetted workers are handling your health and financial data? Everything about this program is half-assed.

[kentonio]

Perhaps if people weren't worried that the GOP are about to crash the world economy in a couple of days, they might have more energy to spend caring about things like this.

[Aeson]

I don't see the problem here ... Who better to help people enroll in an unfunded healthcare expansion by a nation on the brink of default than someone with a history of bankruptcy and writing bad checks?

[DinoDoc]

Perhaps if people weren't worried that the GOP are about to crash the world economy in a couple of days, they might have more energy to spend caring about things like this.

This is similar in content if not tone to the arguments I've been using to argue to BK and others why the Cruz strategy was a cul de sac that was never going to lead anywhere and only served to throw the President a lifeline on this issue.

[kentonio]

Yep. I might disagree with most of what the modern GOP stands for, but it's the abject stupidity of how they go about things that really gets on my nerves.

[Sava]

And still the big story isn't about ACA at this point... it's about how Republicans are destroying the country.

You guys are smart.

[DaShi]

How does it feel to know that insufficiently vetted workers are handling your health and financial data?

So nothing has changed.

[PLATO]

And still the big story isn't about Republicans at this point... it's about how ACA is destroying the country.

You guys are smart.

Yep.

[Sava]

Yep.

It's made this a wonderful experience for me. I always thought conservatism would need to be actively defeated. I never thought they'd do all the work for me.