Not just Oregon, nor Maryland and Rhode Island, but now the state Obamacare website Massachusetts has failed. Since October 2013, when the health care exchanges were supposed to be open and ready for business, Massachusetts residents have confronted the broken-down Massachusetts Health Connector, which has connected no one to better health care.
The website is beyond repair, according to sources, and Massachusetts has decided to scrap their first site and set up another one.
Of course, failures with state-sponsored health care are nothing new. Conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby itemized the ongoing failures of RomneyCare, the "model for the nation" per the governor-turned-Presidential candidate who signed the law. Jacoby sounded off on the longer waiting periods, the growing drain on state coffers because of "safety-net" users (and abusers), plus the growing number of doctors who will not receive new patients. Furthermore, RomneyCare did not diminish the number of patients filling up Massachusetts emergency rooms.
Following lawsuits and refusals to pay, Beacon Hill is starting over with another website.
At the same time, the Bay State will prepare connections with the federal exchange in case the new state exchange (fresh of the shelf, according to the Daily Caller).
Massachusetts already wasted $200 million on the first failed Massachusetts Health Connector site.
State Rep Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton) blasted the massive waste of state funds, especially for a state which already struggles under the highest health care costs. Even after comprehensive price controls passed in 2012, Bay state health care costs are soaring.
The national website, Healthcare.gov, was a disaster, and now state exchanges need to be exchanged, and there is little evidence that Healthcare.gov 2.0 will be any improvement.
The Massachusetts legislature wants to sponsor another state website while aligning the federal exchange to take over in case the new site is not ready by November 2014.
By November 2014, though, will there be any Democrats left in Boston who will want to stay connected with Obamacare? Or in Washington, for that matter?