These are some really strange events and somewhat unanticipated by almost everyone. It smacks somewhat of "sour grapes" for some of those who were against the ACA in the first place. The rollout of "Obamacare" has been rockier than it should have been but there are reasons that has happened in addition to poor software development. I will interject at this point that Medicare and Social Security were both initiated without access to an internet. The rollout of both of those took months to accomplish and some even went for a few years. The great hubbub about this enrolment period is due to intense criticism by political and ideological opponents.The states that have established exchanges of their own as was envisioned by the authors of this legislation have seen their state run exchanges be very successful in enrolling people with many examples of joy by people being insured for the first time in many years, some in ever. Those states that did not accept the responsibility of state run exchanges have, by default, allowed the federal government to operate the health exchanges. Ironically, this has resulted in a favorite prescription used by conservatives to allow insurance companies to operate across state lines. The down side is that it places undue strain on an enrollment system that was not anticipated to handle so much national load. It will get better.
A large part of the discontent with the insurance itself results from insurance companies having to provide policies with basic coverages. That has resulted in cancellation of inadequate policies that were the darlings of the young, invincible population. The lobbying effort to keep the insurance companies in business and to prevent the competition of a public option have made these policies unattractive to insurers hence the cancellations. However, in many cases subsidies will make up the difference.
Another part that is causing cancellations is the excise tax that is due to take effect in 2018. Insurance companies and employers are already changing policies to avoid this 40% tax on "cadillac" policies. Those policies will be available at market rates. This was done to encourage greater responsibility by consumers for health care choices. Also a conservative tenet.
This is a big change. It will not be without pain. Real change is always upsetting to the status quo. I am including a link to some information about the New Zealand medical insurance system which is pretty much what ours will end up being if people can resist tearing the ACA apart.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/expathealth/8308330/Expat-guide-to-New-Zealand-health-care.html
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