In the past few weeks, heaps of criticism have been piled on the Obama administration for the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, and rightfully so. More than a month into the law’s implementation, problems with Healthcare.gov aren’t fully resolved.

While critics — who come from both sides of the political spectrum — are certainly justified in taking issue with how the administration has handled things to this point, some have taken it too far.

Last Thursday, The New York Times published an article in which columnist Michael D. Shear essentially compares the mishandled Obamacare rollout to President George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Although each serves as an example of a presidential misstep, there is no justifiable way to compare Hurricane Katrina to the Affordable Care Act.

Katrina devastated an entire region of the country, costing billions in damage and claiming thousands of lives. President Bush appeared to be completely ignorant of just how bad things were when he asserted that Michael Brown, then-director of FEMA, was doing a “heck of a job.”

In reality, FEMA responded slowly and demonstrated a complete lack of preparedness.

Today, the administration has shown a lack of preparedness in terms of implementing the website that allows citizens to choose an insurance plan, but its response has not been nearly as disastrous as the Bush administration’s was.

Nor have the consequences of Obamacare’s troubles been nearly as horrific as those of the botched Hurricane Katrina response.

What are the consequences of the technical problems experienced by Healthcare.gov? At worst, potential enrollees must wait longer to sign up for a plan.

Now consider the consequences of the Bush administration’s response to Katrina. It’s not unreasonable to think that more lives could have been saved if FEMA had been more prepared and taken action with more urgency.

Thankfully there’s hope for the law once the technical issues plaguing it are resolved.

According to a report published in the Los Angeles Times, some states that use their own systems, such as California, are on pace to hit enrollment targets for 2014.

“What we are seeing is incredible momentum,” said Peter Lee, director of Covered California, which is the nation’s largest state insurance marketplace.
If and when Healthcare.gov is fully operational, this trend will hopefully be seen nationwide, which is exactly what proponents of Obamacare have hoped for.

In the event that happens, it’s quite possible that the law’s troubled rollout will be largely forgotten and be seen as a success, rather than a disastrous liability.

What’s important is that it happens sooner rather than later, because the 2014 midterm elections are just less than a year away. The success (or failure) of Obamacare has big implications for how Democrats — who have largely supported the law — will perform in these elections.

The problem-laden implementation of Medicare Part D, which took effect in 2006, proved to be an embarrassment for the Bush administration, and ultimately cost the GOP some of the support of senior citizens, who comprise a solid portion of the Republican base.

And look what happened in the 2006 elections: Democrats won control of both houses of Congress (albeit for more reasons than just Medicare Part D).

Simply put, Obamacare could be wildly successful, but the administration needs to first figure out what’s causing these issues and fix them. It’d be a big boost for the Democratic Party, who is trying to retain control of the Senate and win back the House.

And if President Obama is going to win more victories on issues such as immigration reform, he needs a Congress controlled by Democrats. Let’s hope the administration can get its act together and produce a smoother rollout going forward.

David Swenton is a senior political science and writing and rhetoric major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at daswento@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @DavidSwenton.

Published on November 20, 2013 at 1:13 am