OPINION:
The March 4 article “Supreme Court tries to make sense of poorly drafted Obamacare language” (Web) reflects the fundamental problem with the entire Obamacare process, not just the issue currently before the Supreme Court. Poor language? No, Obamacare is poorly understood, specified and designed. It is a massive undertaking initiated from a 2,700-page legislative document that, to paraphrase then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, we indeed had to pass in order to see what it contained. It was parceled out to various government agencies to interpret, generate individual requirements for and then implement. Apparently little, if any, thought was given to the potential impact on one agency of the decision made by another to implement a portion of a poorly defined bill. The measure’s impact upon the economic structure of the nation was apparently never considered, either.
Is it any wonder that the first rollout of the government website — costing $600 million — was a failure? States wasted millions just trying to implement portions of Obamacare. The courts have been petitioned to sort out the intent of a poorly defined law. The government has had to grant more than 40 waivers. Future cost estimates (promised subsidies) were never made. The government failed to apply to the entire process a system-engineering approach, which would have assured legible specifications, design and testing of a set-up estimated to affect 20 percent of our economy. Lost in the shuffle was any admission that health insurance policies do not guarantee actual medical care.
System engineering requires skilled management at every step to ensure that an evolving system of regulations, supervision and proposed computer systems are consistent with each other. This includes subsystem testing and in-depth evaluation of interfacing components before there is any commitment to proceed with full implementation. It appears as though none of this was done before the implementation of Obamacare — and now the nation is facing consequences that can only guarantee future turmoil.
Obamacare is an impossibility and needs to be repealed and replaced.
WARREN MANISON
Potomac
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