$625M error: Obamacare website debacle harbinger of mess-ups to come

Looking for that one drop-dead piece of evidence to use in arguments with those who are still standing behind the refusal of the Obama Administration to delay or to alter the rollout of the Affordable Care Act?

Try this one: A computer system that will not allow people to log on, let alone sign up for, the alleged savior of an insurance program.

That's right, anywhere from $400 million to $625 million (the experts vary on exactly how much) was spent on a computer system that is not just experiencing glitches. It is a downright failure. And now, there are even questions about the qualifications of the contractor hired to do the website in the first place.

The call for the delay in the implementation of Obamacare is not just partisan wrangling or jockeying for brinkmanship. It is an acknowledgment that this law is not ready to go live -- and that there is more than one person in the administration who knows that fact.

And the fact that the president has himself already granted so many waivers that he has fundamentally affected how the law will function belies the argument that the measure is law and that's the bottom line.

The call needs to go up now to stop this fiasco before it does anymore real damage -- and there needs to be a call as well for real numbers associated with the new program. Millions of people logging on does not indicate a massive demand for the insurance services the program provides. It just indicates that millions of people are having to log in multiple times to get even close to looking at what the program offers.

Enough spin. Enough protecting the president.

This website is a stark reminder that these are the people who are about to become the stewards of the future of health care in America -- and they can't even get a website to function properly.

The time is now to speak up and to let the leaders in Congress know that this is not about politics -- it is about people's lives and livelihoods.

And that is the bottom line.

Published in Editorials on October 15, 2013 12:40 PM