Adventures in Healthcare.gov, or about what I expected.

After waiting two weeks for the credit reporting corporation Experian to get around to verifying my identity, I gave up and started over from scratch using my work email.

I'll give the site this much credit- the second attempt was over and finished in about ten minutes. Very smooth. That part the techs appear to have fixed.

However, as expected, my predicted 2014 income- $400/month net profit being inflated when compared to past years- was way, way below the threshhold for getting federal help. I would qualify for expanded Medicaid... but oh wait, I live in Texas. Not available.

But I went ahead to shop around on the exchange, to see what competition would do for insurance.

You want to know how many insurance corporations are participating in the exchanges in Texas?

ONE.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is IT.

And the cheapest option is an HMO that would require me to drive to Houston for anything medical... 60% coverage at $165/mth. A PPO which might actually get me into the hospital in Livingston would cost $225/mth.

Certain worrying pains and twitches will have to be ignored a while longer, it appears.

The good news is, Healthcare.gov is going to send me a form to tell me how to apply for an exemption from the healthcare mandate penalty. Yay.

I admit that all these problems can accurately be laid at the feet of Republicans and corporate CEOs bent and determined to sabotage the system... but the system appears to me to be designed to make it dead easy to sabotage. This thing can only work if everyone plays nice... and NOBODY is playing nice.

And all of this was quite accurately predicted when this system was proposed in 2009.

Obama, I am disappoint.