Every time we turn around we hear that the Affordable Care Act is costing full time jobs. We hear its destroying the economy. We hear its bad for America. Its been three weeks since the launch of the exchanges and its a “train wreck” or a “debacle.” Well enough is enough and its time we spoke up back.
To address the first huge myth about “Obamacare” as so many affectionately call it, is the belief that it is destroying the full time job market in the United States. In an article published today by Rueters entitled, “Little Evidence That Obamacare is Costing Full-time Jobs,” this stubborn myth is attacked head on. Even with the new healthcare insurance requirements on the way, part-time employees has remained stagnant at roughly 7.9 million workers. The chairman of the White House Council on Economic Advisers, Jason Furman, who's job it is to stare at figures like these all day, said, “We are not seeing any effect in the data.”
In fact, even with all the bad press floating around the law lately, the approval numbers for it are up to 46% according to the latest Washington Post poll. It was at 42% in September. Not a bad upswing for a “trainwreck” huh? Republicans would be wise to remember that 46% is actually almost double their popularity as a party right now. They are hanging around at a paltry 32% (26% for the Tea Party...ouch).
In history, some of the biggest tech launches have had a rough few weeks, or even months before they've been up and running smoothly. Let's take one of the biggest industries in the world and couple it with the best programmers in the world. That's right. I'm talking about the video game industry. Millions of people playing simultaneously, huge amounts of data flowing back and forth on the latest technology.
One doesn't have to look very far in the past to see a project that was worked on for over five years with a budget of almost a hundred million dollars, that was a “train wreck” when it launched: Grand Theft Auto Five. The game was unplayable for almost two full weeks. Patch after patch was released, and now a month later, the game is running pretty darn well considering millions of people are on at a single given time. Just follow the YouTube views to crazy videos of glitches and hiccups in that game!
Obviously, the Affordable Care Act is much more important in the big picture than any video game. But the parallels are the same. Massive undertaking. Huge amounts of code and data. Millions of people trying to access it all at once. Before everyone calls for “heads to roll” it'd be wise for us to stand up and defend the law. Because if we let Republicans control the message, they might get their way and see it destroyed, leaving millions of Americans once again uninsured and helpless in affording quality healthcare like so many privileged here.
And the last thing we need is conservatives “stealing” our victory for the less fortunate over a common trend on the technology world: working out bugs and glitches with these little things called patches. If we rise up together, just maybe, we won't get “jacked.”