In his latest op-ed in The Baltimore Sun, Political Science Professor Thomas Schaller writes about the Obama Administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, calling it a “disaster.” He compares it to the rollout of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or “the stimulus,” which had far fewer technical problems and glitches.
“To be fair, ACA is a bigger, more complex and permanent law than ARRA,” Schaller writes. “But the uncomfortable fact is that this administration had more than three years to prepare for the implementation of ACA’s key policy innovation: the state health care exchanges and their attendant websites.”
Schaller notes the president charged Vice President Joe Biden and other top officials to oversee the ARRA implementation, which had a strong, functioning website that recorded every dollar spent. He also observes that it’s surprising the Affordable Care Act has experienced so many technical problems after past success with other programs, including the president’s two election campaigns.
“Why such technical expertise and rigorous detail was absent from Obamacare’s implementation will remain one of the enduring — and embarrassing — mysteries of this presidency,” Schaller writes.
You can read the full op-ed in The Baltimore Sun here.
Tags: CAHSS, PoliticalScience
