Obamacare = a gun held to the head of the American people

On November 3 I predicted that there was no way the healthcare.gov website would be running smoothly by December 1, as the Administration assured us it would. Here's an update as reported in WSJ today:

In updates for reporters on Thursday and Friday, the Affordable Care Act's lead repairman Jeff Zients more or less conceded that the website three years in the making won't work until sometime after the end of this month. He explained that every problem that is resolved and taken off the "punch list"—already several hundred items long—reveals new problems that the tech people didn't know about. "Where we are is not where we want to be," he said.

Anybody who is surprised that things are playing out this way knows nothing about the software development process. You just don't roll out a major release of a complex enterprise software system and then a couple of months later roll out another major release. All you need to do is ask yourself how frequently Microsoft rolls out major releases of the Windows operating system to understand the rhythm which with such releases typically happen. The simple fact that the Administration claimed the website would be working by December is just another sign that they are utterly incompetent. Either that, or once again they are telling bald-faced lies to the American public.

But, even if these technical problems with the website eventually get ironed out, what is not fixable in Obamacare and what will cause its eventual failure is the incentives it creates and the coercion it exercises: it incentivizes the sick, old, poor, and uninsured to sign up for Obamacare; it coerces the healthy, young, and affluent to pay higher premiums to cover the additional costs.

During the government shutdown, the President said that he would not negotiate with the Republicans with "a gun held to the head of the American people." Well, what is the individual mandate if not a gun held to the head of the American people? Enroll in Obamacare or pay a fine. Take your new plan that the government in its infinite wisdom has decided is "better" for you (with its higher deductibles, more limited doctor networks, and coverage you don't want), or leave it and pay a fine. Coercion plain and simple. Bang!