Affordable Healthcare, American style...

This whole thing really shocks me, sitting here in Canada, well outside the 'fallout zone' because I find it very difficult to believe that my American neighbors can be so clueless about something that's been around for decades in one form or another.

For starters, you've known about and thrown shit at our Canadian system of healthcare for years. And you've got to know that if yours is based on a multitude of private insurance providers, there's going to be a lot of different prices and different coverages as they try to maximize their profits while minimizing their exposure. So unless you have one set of rules for everybody, then it's going to be a hell of a mess, which it seems to be at the moment.

And surely to God you would be expected to find someone to create your central website who had the expertise and the proven performance record to get it done on time and without any crippling problems. Some of the biggest and best of the world's computer programming companies have been based in the USA forever, but did you consult with any of them? Did you give them the opportunity to demonstrate their world-class expertise for your benefit? Evidently not - because your own in-house know-it-alls assured you that wasn't necessary, and being the gullible bastards you are, you actually ignored the constant hotbed of political intrigue swirling around your heads and gave them their way. And quite predictably, the results have been a complete embarrassment and an abject failure. 

And now, everybody's backpedalling like crazy trying to cover their asses from the inevitable fallout, and the Koch brothers are laughing their asses off! You've played right into their hands, which is the very last thing you ought to have done. When you don't know what you're doing, find an expert who does, and make them prove it before your ass goes on the line for it. What's so difficult about that? Why didn't you let Microsoft help? Or ask Google how to set up a site designed for very high traffic? What were you thinking?