With Obamacare’s grand opening less than six months away, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported on Wednesday that the government has already blown numerous deadlines for setting up the health exchanges that are to provide insurance for nine million people.
President Barack Obama, however, has promised the government health exchanges will be ready to go by October.
The tangle of plans and procedures has already forced the Obama Administration to scale back and postpone certain aspects of the healthcare overhaul. And Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) have expressed serious concerns that Obamacare is a “huge train wreck coming down.”
Still, the Obama White House and progressive allies continue to confidently proclaim that they are not worried about Obamacare’s unveiling.
“We’re going to implement the law well, and we don’t worry,” said Obama strategist Dan Pfeiffer.
Progressive New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has gone even further.
“The real Obamacare shock will be one of unexpected success” wherein “millions of Americans will suddenly gain health coverage” and “only a relative handful of people will be hurt at all,” says Krugman.
Government workers are scrambling to cobble together the small business exchanges and the individual exchanges before October. The GAO, however, says it cannot say whether the government will meet the deadline.
“Whether [the government’s] contingency planning will assure the timely and smooth implementation of the exchanges by October 2013 cannot yet be determined,” said the GAO reports.