So what was the point of all this drama?  Why did Democrats pass this awful health care law?  Wasn’t it to ensure that those without healthcare insurance would finally be covered?

Hmmm … maybe someone should have asked the uninsured whether or not it was a priority for them.  Gallup tells us most of them are ignoring the push for them to enroll:

In the midst of widespread news coverage of problems with the federal health exchange website, relatively few uninsured Americans (18%) — the primary target population for the exchanges — have so far attempted to visit an exchange website. The percentage is slightly higher, 22%, among uninsured Americans who say they plan to get insurance through the exchanges.

These results are based on a series of questions Gallup asked uninsured Americans about the health exchanges from Oct. 23-Nov. 6.

Not exactly what one would call a “thundering herd” of uninsured, is it?  In fact:

Gallup previously found that less than half of uninsured Americans (44%) who plan to get insurance say they will do so through an exchange, and about one in four say they are more likely to pay a fine instead of getting insurance. These findings help explain the low percentage of the uninsured who have attempted to access the exchange websites.

They certainly do.  They also help explain why ObamaCare is likely to fail miserably.  The only group which saw this as a huge priority were Democrats in Congress and the White House.  Despite anecdotal complaints, the vast majority of Americans were either happy with their health care situation or felt fine without insurance (those usually being the young and healthy who saw no need for it at the time).

Are there broader implications?

The health exchange websites are not only fraught with the technical problems that have led to so much news coverage in recent weeks, but have also generated relatively little interest or use among uninsured Americans — the primary target group for the exchanges. The majority of uninsured Americans are unfamiliar with the exchanges and relatively few have tried to access them to date, even among those who say that eventually, they will most likely get their insurance through an exchange website.

The reality is this law was passed to satisfy a political agenda, not to satisfy the demands of the citizenry.  And that reality is demonstrated by this sort of indifferent reception.  Even though the rollout has been a disaster, the biggest problem remains government butting into a market where it was neither needed or wanted.  The results are predictable.

~McQ