Medicare & The Affordable Care Act

As a month since healthcare.gov's launch comes and passes, consumers are left with many impressions. The President and his surrogates apologizing profusely, Republican opportunists leaping on the website, and the 24-hour news cycle naturally beating the subject into the ground, litigating the subject into ridiculousness.

An important feature of this story, however, is that while the numbers are picked from internal memos, very little editorial attention is paid to similar events in the past. One event in particular that is in recent memory is the launch of Medicare Part D under the Bush administration. Occasionally, you'll hear liberal commentators bringing this example up, along with the failed launch of Medicare in the mid-60's, but overall, the narrative ignores this historical precedent. This precedent is important because it gives credence to the idea that this is not a failure specific to the Obama administration, and that failures of this magnitude can be overcome with great success. When is the initial failure of Medicare mentioned when we discuss the program as a pillar of the American social contract? How about Medicare Part D, the program that effectively allows seniors to not have to pay an exorbitant proportion of their fixed income on their prescription drugs? These programs become extremely important aspects of the American character, but only if they're a sliver of a chance to survive the cynical resistance to mild reforms toward egalitarianism. I realize this is an editorial attitude to take regarding this article in particular, but as with every aspect of the coverage of the ACA, perspective is incredibly important.

http://news.yahoo.com/enrollment-obamacare-very-small-first-days-documents-011616468.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UhmjZpSFXIAW0TQtDMD