Keller @ Large: Government At Its Worst

BOSTON (CBS) - Even if you aren't one of the tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents living in a state of high anxiety because, despite having filled out your paperwork and sent in your check, you still don't know if you have health insurance, it's hard not to be moved by the stories legislators told at a State House hearing Wednesday into the ongoing debacle of the state's efforts to comply with the federal health-care reform.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

One state rep spoke for many when he summarized the complaints of his constituents and added his own question: "'My check's been cashed since December, I have no ID card, my doctor won't see my sick child.' What do we tell them?"

Unfortunately, the Health Connector officials thrown to the wolves by the Patrick administration had no answers.

The website is still not working properly, admitted the insurance executive who's been brought in to fix the mess; the hundreds of extra helpers imported to try to process applicants by hand are way behind the eight-ball; and they admitted they've gone begging to Washington for a six-month delay in the March 31st deadline for enrollment, but hold little hope of getting more than three months, a reprieve no one thinks will be enough.

Gov. Patrick has gone from refusing to admit there's a problem, to claiming no one will be hurt by the problem, to blaming the problem on the outside IT vendor and on "politicization" by his critics, most of whom at this point are liberal Democrats who strongly support health reform.

But that insurance executive admitted Wednesday that Patrick's administration has plenty of blame on its head too.

If they knew what they were doing, she wouldn't need to be there.

This whole debacle has been government at its worst – arrogant, heavy-handed, clueless.

Sorry, in this case, good intentions just aren't enough of an excuse.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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