While doing some research this morning, I came across an interesting article on a tech website. This in particular caught my attention:
In fact, when Leslie Norwalk, Deputy Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spoke to CSPAN on November 29th on Washington Journal, the segment included a live web demonstration of the web site enrollment process. Well, guess what, as luck would have it, the site errored out after the third or fourth step, and the CSPAN host quickly had to move on to other topics…
Reading that I’m sure your first thought is “damn healthcare.gov and Obamacare!” Honestly I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that, even though you would be wrong. Instead that paragraph is from an article in 2005 talking about the glitches that hammered Medicare Part D.
Those problems were constant back then, and that’s for a website designed to handle less than 20% of the population of the country. The problems also didn’t stop there. They continued on past the enrollment deadline and in 2006 we started seeing constant reports on the evening news of seniors unable to get their life-saving medications. When Republicans, including George Bush were to be asked about the problems, they quickly acted like nothing was wrong.
And the way that the Medicare-D program came to life is also telling. It was born as the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act. The bill was introduced in June of 2003 and signed into law that December. In that 5 months though, something really interesting happened when it came time for a vote in the House:
The bill came to a vote at 3 a.m. on November 22. After 45 minutes, the bill was losing, 219-215, with David Wu (D-OR-1) not voting. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay sought to convince some of dissenting Republicans to switch their votes, as they had in June. Istook, who had always been a wavering vote, consented quickly, producing a 218-216 tally. In a highly unusual move, the House leadership held the vote open for hours as they sought two more votes. Then-Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) claimed he was offered campaign funds for his son, who was running to replace him, in return for a change in his vote from “nay” to “yea.” After controversy ensued, Smith clarified no explicit offer of campaign funds was made, but that he was offered “substantial and aggressive campaign support” which he had assumed included financial support.[6]
About 5:50 a.m., convinced Otter and Trent Franks (AZ-2) to switch their votes. With passage assured, Wu voted yea as well, and Democrats Calvin M. Dooley (CA-20), Jim Marshall (GA-3) and David Scott (GA-13) changed their votes to the affirmative. But Brad Miller (D-NC-13), and then, Republican John Culberson (TX-7), reversed their votes from “yea” to “nay”. The bill passed 220-215
The Republican controlled House decided to break the rules and keep the vote open, until they could get the votes to pass it. Nothing like this occurred in the year that the ACA was in Congress. Remember that when you hear Republicans talk about the ACA being rushed through and there being legislative gimmicks to get it passed.
But the most interesting part is the after-math of the Medicare-D rollout. As I said, we had a nightly reminder on the evening news of how flawed the program was. Constantly our television showed interviews of grandmothers and grandfathers scared and outraged that the medications they need to continue living they couldn’t get. No one had an answer for them and some states even went into emergency mode, releasing funds to give these seniors their medications.
At that point did the Democrats, who were still the minority in both houses, proceed to countless attempts at repeal or even shut the government down? No. Instead Democrats worked with Republicans to try and make the program work – a program Democrats largely opposed. Legislation went in to tweak it and that legislation became law. Opposing lawmakers didn’t try to sabotage the program, they worked with it because, like it or not, it was law. They had to live with it, so they might as well work to fix it.
Of course the same environment doesn’t exist today. Instead we have a Republican Party on the opposition side, and instead of working for the greater good of a nation, they rather go out and stoke outrage and create false talking points. They would rather see the country cease to exist, then support a program that is similar in design and problems of one they greatly supported a decade ago. And they will stop at nothing to try and make the program a failure.
And why? Is it because this is a Democrat plan, or is it because we have a black guy in the White House? I don’t know the actual answer, but I do know that my level of disgust with today’s GOP is at an all-time high. They don’t give a damn about you or me. Their only concern is power, and history tells us that such a blinded ambition is always accompanied by serious danger. Sadly the danger is posed to the healthcare of millions of Americans, and we shouldn’t stand for that threat.