Rocky kickoff but big Obamacare welcome

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, October 2, 2013.

Was the first day of Obamacare a hit or a miss? Depends on your perspective. It could be both.

The technology was a bust. The computer systems set up to help people find and sign up for health-insurance plans were overwhelmed. Millions of would-be applicants wrestled with frozen screens or balky interfaces that blocked them from even assessing what packages were available, let alone signing up for one.

But those frustrated customers were the good news too. Millions of Americans rushed to find out about the new way to get health insurance, many within hours of the 8 a.m. opening of the federal Health Insurance Marketplace at healthcare.gov.

News stories from around the country told the same tale: There is deep interest in a plan that can provide health insurance for individuals and families that don't have it through their employers but whose income is too high to qualify for programs like Medicaid.

All but 14 states have let the federal government run their insurance exchanges. Anecdotal evidence from some of the states that did set up exchanges indicates a better experience for first-day users.

North Carolina was one of the states taking a hands-off approach to the Affordable Care Act. State leaders were mostly hostile toward the new federal program and refused to set up a health-insurance exchange, or to cooperate with the program any more than they had to.

But on Tuesday, Gov. Pat McCrory released a video statement that expresses willingness to help North Carolina residents enroll in the program. "I'm opposed to Obamacare," McCrory says, "but as your governor, I feel it's our duty to be as helpful as we can." He then explains the details of how the federal program works.

At the same time, workers in the state's Department of Health and Human Services are trying to find and enroll more low-income residents who are eligible for the Medicaid program. The governor and his staff call it "woodworking" because people eligible for Medicaid seem to be coming out of the woodwork. They're doing it despite Medicaid funding shortfalls of nearly half a billion dollars, because insurance coverage costs less than providing health care - usually in hospital emergency rooms - for uninsured patients.

North Carolina still has a rocky relationship with Obamacare. And between problems with the state's new computer systems and lawmakers' refusal to accept federal funding for an expanded Medicaid program, there are big holes in our safety net.

But despite all that, it looks as if we're about to get more North Carolinians covered by some form of medical insurance. That's a healthy bottom line.