Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

HealthCare.gov: How Political Fear Was Pitted Against Technical Needs
Wa Po ^ | 10/2/13 | Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin

Posted on 11/02/2013 9:08:06 PM PDT by Lmo56

In May 2010, two months after the Affordable Care Act squeaked through Congress, President Obama’s top economic aides were getting worried. Larry Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and Peter Orzag, head of the Office of Management and Budget, had just received a pointed four-page memo from a trusted outside health adviser. It warned that no one in the administration was “up to the task” of overseeing the construction of an insurance exchange and other intricacies of translating the 2,000-page statute into reality.

Summers, Orzag and their staffs agreed. For weeks that spring, a tug of war played out inside the White House, according to five people familiar with the episode. On one side, members of the economic team and Obama health-care adviser Zeke Emanuel lobbied for the president to appoint an outside health reform “czar” with expertise in business, insurance and technology. On the other, the president’s top health aides — who had shepherded the legislation through its tortuous path on Capitol Hill and knew its every detail — argued that they could handle the job.

In the end, the economic team never had a chance: The president had already made up his mind, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid. Obama wanted his health policy team — led by Nancy-Ann De­Parle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform — to be in charge of the law’s arduous implementation. Since the day the bill became law, the official said, the president believed that “if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: fearfuldems; healthcaredotgov; obamacare; rinocare
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-47 next last
To: Lmo56

You could condense this entire article into something on the order of “if the Republicans had only cooperated, everything would have been peachy-keen.”


21 posted on 11/02/2013 9:48:51 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (If you liked the website, you'll LOVE the healthcare!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Haha! Well done. My favorite line:

Soon National Socialist health rationing system will be smashing records like former Leningrad Red Star Locomotive Factory.
You must have read a lot of Pravda in your youth.
22 posted on 11/02/2013 9:51:48 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SonAboveAnItch
RE :”The whole point of the article is to blame the Republicans, nothing less. The typical, brain-dead, lockstep, Obamanation syncophants will nod in agreement. “Yup, those evil Republicans — it’s all their fault”.

Blame Republicans for what?

Look, even if this was true and Obama admin totally f..ed up Obamacare implementation just because they were terrified that the GOP would be critical of them if they didn't (does this sound like it makes sense?), that's good news. It means we didn't just waste our time the past 3 years for nothing.

Its Obamacare dude...OBAMA-care...like the Powell said in Iraq, you broke it you own it.

23 posted on 11/02/2013 9:52:50 PM PDT by sickoflibs (To GOP : Any path to US Citizenship IS putting them ahead in line. Stop lying about your position)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

I was an undisinguished Russian Studies major at UVA 75-79.


24 posted on 11/02/2013 9:56:41 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56

Problem with posting the print version link is we don’t see the comments. Original version with comments:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/challenges-have-dogged-obamas-health-plan-since-2010/2013/11/02/453fba42-426b-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html?tid=pm_pop


25 posted on 11/02/2013 9:58:15 PM PDT by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

The use of National Socialist is deliberate bait. I posted this elsewhere, but I’m going to bed, so here it is pasted.

Never use the vocabulary of the Left, it gives them every advantage to fight from their rhetorical high ground. “Single payer” is the euphemism that Obama used in his 2003 speech to the AFL-CIO, when he said it would take over a decade and several transitional steps to arrive at a “single payer” universal healthcare system. Don’t use “single payer in discussions or comments. “Low information voters” won’t understand what it means, and it actually sounds rather nice and simple. “Great, a ‘single payer’ will pay for my medical care. As long as it’s not me, I’m all for it.”

Instead, always call it National Socialist healthcare rationing. (With or without the caps.) This drives the proggys insane with anger, and they can’t help but object to that terminology. Their anger steers them directly into several rhetorical traps, actually quicksand. When they object, simply ask them which part they object to, the National, or the Socialist? Enjoy, while they sputter and fume with rage.

Then the too-clever-by-half among them will accuse you of not even understanding the difference between socialism/Communism and socialism/Fascism. When they bring this up, they have jumped into the tar pit, because we win every time when the debate is reduced to discussing whether National Socialist healthcare rationing more closely resembles the Communist or the Nazi model.


26 posted on 11/02/2013 10:00:10 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: R_Kangel
Hundreds of committees, probably thousands of individuals working on some aspect of the project, a veritable flood of weekly meetings...but nobody appears to have been in charge.

At various times, various people were said to be in charge -- but nobody was responsible for making the SOB work!

Just one more example of how government can't do anything well -- other than piss billions of dollars away.

27 posted on 11/02/2013 10:04:45 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance On Parade)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56

before the ACA.
what was Federal and state law,
concerning the issue of insurance companies
being allowed (or not) to drop customers
that make big claims.
please be as specific as you can be.

Thanks for any responses!


28 posted on 11/02/2013 10:10:17 PM PDT by RockyTx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56

“Since the day the bill became law, the official said, the president believed that “if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann.””

Heck of a job, Barry. Heckuva job.


29 posted on 11/02/2013 11:49:17 PM PDT by DemforBush (Leave the gun, take the catnip toy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jeff Chandler

Back in the 1990’s when Hillary had her HealthCare Task Force, I got a look at the 500+ names of those in it. NOT ONE PRACTICING DOCTOR.

That fact helped scuttle that POS taskforce and proposal.

Looks like the Obamites didn’t learn a thing from it. Should have asked Hillary. She could have told them a thing or too, as well as that their plan wouldn’t work.


30 posted on 11/03/2013 12:16:11 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56

31 posted on 11/03/2013 12:44:22 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56
The president had already made up his mind, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid. Obama wanted his health policy team — led by Nancy-Ann De­Parle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform — to be in charge of the law’s arduous implementation. Since the day the bill became law, the official said, the president believed that “if you were to design a person in the lab to implement health care, it would be Nancy-Ann.”.. [excerpt from Washington Post Nov 2,2013 article: "HealthCare.gov: How Political Fear Was Pitted Against Technical Needs"

About Nancy Ann Min DeParle:

"DeParle was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Rockwood, Tennessee, where she graduated from Rockwood High School. Her mother died of lung cancer when Nancy-Ann was 17

She attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where her major was history and her senior thesis was entitled "Uncle Sam, Hirohito, and Resegregation: The Tule Lake Segregation Center, 1943-1946." She was awarded a B.A. degree with highest honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and selected as a Phi Kappa Phi scholar. She was the first female president of the University of Tennessee student body and was a member of the Gamma Alpha chapter of Delta Gamma. In 1978 Glamour magazine named her one of the year's top ten college women.

After graduating from Tennessee she enrolled in Harvard Law School, but interrupted her studies there when she was awarded a Rhodes scholarship. As a Rhodes scholar, she went to Balliol College of Oxford University, receiving a B.A. from Oxford in 1981. After returning to Harvard, she earned a J.D. degree in 1983.

She is married to Jason DeParle, a reporter for The New York Times.

She has Chinese ancestry.

......DeParle has drawn criticism for her lucrative service on corporate boards after her tenure in the Clinton administration. Msnbc.com reported that she was paid more than $6 million, and served as a director of half a dozen companies that faced federal investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions. Many of these companies have a stake in the health care reform that she led.

She served as a director of Accredo Health Inc., Boston Scientific, Cerner Corp., DaVita, Guidant, Medco Health Solutions, Speciality Laboratories, and Triad Hospitals. She was a managing director of CCMP Capital....... Source

32 posted on 11/03/2013 3:32:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56

*****Obama dressed up as the President for the WH Halloween Party - but NOBODY believed him when they saw him ...****

I didn’t believe him either. I thought that was the rodeo clown!!


33 posted on 11/03/2013 4:23:58 AM PST by Don@VB (Power Corrupts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

**********I was an undisinguished Russian Studies major at UVA 75-79.**********

GO HOOS!!! UVA ‘74 :-)


34 posted on 11/03/2013 4:31:25 AM PST by Don@VB (Power Corrupts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Lmo56; Oldeconomybuyer

The wisdom of bert reciting his prescient thoughts October 22, 2012


To: Oldeconomybuyer
-——a very difficult media environment........the issue is incompetence-———

Ho, ho, ho....... The crap has been accumulating for some time now. The bag has burst. The crap will now spill all over who knows what.

There are hundreds, nay thousands, that will be splattered with the offal spilling from the busted bag. There must be splatter insurance, a splatter suit, a splatter shield, to limit the stench covering crap damage to those thousands.
The easy solution, Cover Your Ass. Emit truth. Even better color the truth with a smattering of ass covering and soul satisfying fiction.

The CYA will extend from the depths of the minions in the doomed bureaucratic trenches into the halls of the Executive Office Building and perhaps across the street into the White House its self. Valarie will chomp the cyanide. There is no hope for her. Jay, poor old Jay, will hari kari with a microphone cord. The witch of the west will submit to having more work done in hopes of looking like someone else. Dingy Harry will wander off into Area 51, never to be heard from again.

The result is isolation. The President like Eva and Adolf in the Bunker, will find himself all alone. The Teleprompter screens will be blank.

16 posted on 10/22/2013 7:42:47 AM by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]


35 posted on 11/03/2013 4:36:10 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

great flow chart...... to whom do we owe thanks?


36 posted on 11/03/2013 4:49:21 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: bert

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/challenges-have-dogged-obamas-health-plan-since-2010/2013/11/02/453fba42-426b-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html?hpid=z1


37 posted on 11/03/2013 4:52:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Don@VB

My brother graduated 75, sister 77, me 79. Whahoo-whah, etceterah.


38 posted on 11/03/2013 5:09:16 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: All
Why healthcare.gov failed includes: billion dollar pay
checks to cronies, insiders, and Mrs O's Princeton classmate.

================================================

No problem, taxpayers---"cutting edge" govt is fixing the web site.

OBAMA CALLS Mrs O: "Before she pocketed some of the billion dollars,
your pal shoulda told us they didn't teach web site construction at Princeton."

SECY SIBELIUS TO OBAMA: "While you're on your brand
new brick phone, Mr President, get a few more cases of
these cute floppy disks Mrs O's Princeton classmate provided."

39 posted on 11/03/2013 5:09:46 AM PST by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SonAboveAnItch
The whole point of the article is to blame the Republicans, nothing less.

You're right. I couldn't even read it. Maybe if the Rats hadn't ramrodded this obamanation through Congress, despite the fact that NOT ONE SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR IT, they wouldn't have had to implement it under such hostile conditions.

40 posted on 11/03/2013 7:03:19 AM PST by giotto
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-47 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson