Number of Obamacare enrollments through Oregon’s state exchange: Zero. Still.

Hotair ^ | 11/12/2013 | Guy Benson

[SeekAndFind]

Yes, this is a deja vu headline. The Associated Press in late October:

A month after Oregon’s problem-plagued online health insurance marketplace has failed to enroll a single person, concerns are mounting that some of the most vulnerable Oregonians may face a break in coverage if they don’t enroll within the next month and a half.

Oregonians were told state officials were making “significant progress.” It’s now mid-November. Back over to you, Associated Press:

With a reputation as a pacesetter in health care, Oregon laid out bold plans for complying with the federal overhaul. The state wouldn’t just create a health insurance exchange, a complicated undertaking in its own right. Oregon officials set out to build one of the biggest and best in the nation — a model that other states would want to copy. But more than a month after Cover Oregon’s online enrollment was supposed to launch, reality is lagging far behind Gov. John Kitzhaber’s grand ideas. The online system still doesn’t work, and the exchange has yet to enroll a single person in health insurance. Interviews with state officials and a review of public records by The Associated Press suggest Cover Oregon officials bit off more than they could chew and clung to their ambitious vision even when their risk management consultants raised alarms.

A few thoughts: (1) Just how proud should Oregon be of its healthcare “pacesetter” reputation? (2) The magnitude of Cover Oregon’s failure is extraordinary. Its website is under-performing Healthcare.gov, having signed up precisely zero people for coverage in six weeks. Oregon is governed by Democrats. They heartily embraced their Obamacare charge from day one, and they’ve failed. These facts blow a giant hole in the Left’s reactionary, ‘it’s Republicans’ fault!’ blamestorming premise. (3) Oregon is something of a case study: Its Democrats “bit off more than they could chew,” then “clung” to their big government ambitions, ignoring multiple warning flares. The governor’s “grand ideas” and the president’s big promises have given way to pathetic results and countless betrayals. This is the liberal project at work, America. Cold, hard reality has punctured the feel-good bubble. Leftism should be judged by its results, not its ostensibly lofty intentions or manipulative rhetoric. (4) Incredibly, Barack Obama has touted Oregon as one of Obamacare’s exemplars of success. Why? They’ve placed a bunch of new people into their empirically failing Medicaid system, a nationwide trend that threatens to crash the financial model of the entire law. And these numbers are cited as good news. Keep that in mind when the administration releases its intentionally nonspecific Obamacare enrollment figures this week. But who cares about these buzz-kill facts and figures, really? Think happy, crunchy thoughts:

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Taxpayers spent millions on this ad, which promotes a broken website. ::starts slow clap::

[cotton1706]

I hope all the people that DIDN’T enroll vote for Senator Merkely’s opponent!

[lbryce]

As it says (somewhere)in the Bible; And Zero begat Zero.

[Haiku Guy]

Who woulda thunk that the folks who came up with this image were completely unprepared to run a multi-billion dollar healthcare system?

[Red Badger]

In deep blue Oregon? They should be banging their keyboards in despair!.......................

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Then then spent $3.2 MILLION on hipsters singing the praises of statism…and STILL zero buyers. What's wrong with those people? Don't they know what's good for them?

[Haiku Guy]

I am not that familiar with Oregon, but it strikes me as odd that the state government has adopted Hippy-Dippy as the theme for a major government program. Do they have rainbows and sunbursts painted all over the DMV out there?

One benefit of this fiasco is that it is damaging the Hippy-Dippy brand. It should be clear to even the lowest of the Low Information Voters that these guys are not ready for prime time. It will also be very instructive when the rainbows and unicorns are put away, and the naked coercion behind the facade is revealed.

[Right Brother]

Watching Fox this morning and I heard that 78% of those 30 million people that had no health insurance before Obamacare never wanted any to begin with and they still don’t. Politically, the Republicans have a perfect shot all teed up and they can’t even find their golf clubs.

[Right Brother]

I live in Oregon and geographically most of the state is red. Unfortunately, Salem, Eugene, and Portland are the highest population centers and are liberal enclaves. Go east of the Cascades and you are in conservative country.

[spokeshave]

Ha...I think that the guitar playing kid is about to be eaten by a giant Venus Flytrap,,,,,a good metaphor for Obamacare.

[Haiku Guy]

So what do the rock-ribbed Eastern Oregon folk think of their hippy-dippy state government? Are they pleased that the symbols of their state government would look right at home on the side of a Grateful Dead fan’s microbus?

[Right Brother]

We would like to secede. Multnomah, Benton, Lane and Marion counties can become their own leftist state.

[Pollster1]

We haven’t had much good news in the five terrible years since the 2008 election, so it’s nice to get this one bit of positive news. I just pray that ObamaCare will be such a catastrophic failure that the democrats will force Obama to repeal it - and that even the GOP insiders will refuse to patch it up enough to continue.