A Thaw in Obamacare Schadenfreude?

The great "polar vortex of 2014" is gone, at least for now.  We woke up this morning to temperatures at a more seasonally reasonable 30 or so, frosty but not unexpected. Who know, we might make it above freezing today.   Even the Obamacare schadenefreude seems less bitter than in recent days.

Liberals wishing to bolster Obamacare often cite the Massachusetts Health Care plan, passed during the Romney governorship as an example of how Obamacare will work.  These comparisons are strained, and Romney has convincingly dispelled them in the past, but Massachusetts actions spreak louder than words:

Massachusetts pol tell the Feds to Back Off

State officials need to get tough with federal officials over Obamacare, and insist
on keeping the state’s 
already functioning universal health insurance system, GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker told Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting.”

“Massachusetts was seven years ahead of the federal government. We had 97 percent of our population covered, we had a website that worked,” Baker told hosts Hillary Chabot and Jaclyn Cashman. “I said for a long time that I didn’t think Mass­achusetts should sacrifice all the progress we made, especially in the small group market, where small businesses buy insurance or an individual market, where individuals buy insurance, by heading down the road to this one-size-fit-all federal solution where the feds make the rules and we just have to live with it.”
...
“We should go back to the feds every week if we have to until they give us a waiver. What’s happening right now is that people are losing coverage that they like. Many people will have a hard time getting coverage again because of the increase in price that comes with the rollout of the federal health-care law.

But it's not just wannabe Republican politicians in Massachusetts who have it in for Obamacare:

Coakley, Patrick eye legal action against Obamacare website firm

Massachusetts’ governor and attorney general said this morning they will not rule out a lawsuit against the firm responsible for the state’s botched Obamacare website.

“It’s something I’ve asked the team to look at,” Gov. Deval Patrick said. “I’m very concerned about the performance of CGI and whether we got what we paid for. And I think most of us feel that we have not.”

Patrick was responding to a reporter’s question about a potential lawsuit after Attorney General Martha Coakley told Boston Herald Radio she was monitoring the Health Connector, which has been riddled with glitches since it began its Obamacare rollout in October.

Remember Obama saying how Republicans were not offering anything on health care, but that he was ready to listen?  Well, not so much. From Stacy McCain: Obama Still Hasn’t Responded to Republican Offer to Discuss Health Care

On Dec. 3, Obama challenged critics of his program: “If you’ve got good ideas, bring them to me. . . . [If] you still think this law is a bad idea then you’ve got to tell us specifically what you’d do differently to cut costs, cover more people, make insurance more secure.”

A week later, on Dec. 10, Griffin and 33 other GOP House members responded with a letter to the President highlighting nine separate areas of reform on which Republicans agree. “We appreciate your offer to discuss alternative proposals,” the letter said, “and we look forward to meeting with you at your earliest convenience.”

So far, apparently, that “earliest convenience” hasn’t arrived.

Well, there was that 17 day Hawaiian vacation in there.  But any who thought Obama really had any intention of listening to, let alone acting on, any suggestions from Republicans on his "signal achievement failure" were delusional.

But let it not be said that the administration doesn't have a plan for fixing Obamacare.  How about a massive advertising campaign during the Sochi Olympics?

The Department of Health and Human Services will launch a TV ad blitz to take advantage of anticipated increased viewership on NBC stations which will carry the Olympic coverage between Feb. 7 and 23, an administration official confirmed to ABC News.

The official said the ads would run in markets with the highest rates of uninsured, but declined to specify the locations or the amount that would be spent.

The ads will encourage uninsured people, particularly young adults, to enroll in Obamacare coverage before the March 31 deadline. They will also educate consumers about new insurance benefits available under the Affordable Care Act, an official said.

Enrollment of young adults is seen as critical to the success of the law. Health industry experts say at least 40 percent of sign-ups need to be between the ages of 18 and 34 to keep premiums in check.

 As HotAir (where I originally saw this article) points out, this is probably a relatively wise decision on the administration's part:

No word on exactly how big the buy is or what the ads will look like, but it’s probably a good call on the advertising front — Wide audience? Check. High-injury extreme sports? Check. Advantageous and prolonged timing smack in the middle of the latter half of the enrollment period? Check — and it sounds like the White House is going to need it.

This may be enough to help me convince Georgia to get a DVR.