Vermont Health Connect may be independently operated, but it has experienced some of the very same “glitches” as the federal Obamacare exchange website Healthcare.gov.
In the month since the October deadline, Vermonters have suffered frustration, confusion, and worry as they try to get health insurance through a website that was down almost the entire first week after the exchanges were set to open.
The website cost the state an astounding $170 million, but the entire population of Vermont is 626,011. That means Vermont taxpayers paid $271.56 per citizen for a website that doesn’t even work.
This Thursday, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin announced VT Health Connect would be taking sick leave as he moved the January 1st deadline to March 31st. He stated, “I won’t tolerate a situation where Vermonters go into the holiday season worried and confused by their health care options come January 1st. That is simply unacceptable…”
The failure of the state exchanges proves that government run healthcare, whether at the state or federal level, is doomed to be a train wreck. Healthcare decisions should be made by individuals operating in the free market, not bureaucrats in Washington or Montpelier.
If your website is glitchy, your phones are unreachable, and paper applications are plentiful you may have a failing government program on your hands and should seek immediate attention.
Unfortunately, a failing government program is an untreatable condition. Only repeal of Obamacare and an end to government run healthcare can prevent further damage.
“Take Vermont…just 115 of these folks were able to enroll…and the exchanges in Vermont and Maryland are among the better-working ones” wrote Forbes’ contributor Sally Pipes.
When even the “better-working” systems are on life support, it’s time to inject free-market oxygen into the system.