Obamacare is proving to be a lesson in government waste, inefficiency, and incompetence. Does anyone in the world think that a private company could survive if it spent money the way several states have done on their health care exchanges? Massachusetts, Maryland, and Oregon have already abandoned their expensive efforts, and more states are expected to follow. Hawaii may be one of them:

The chief executive of Hawaii's largest health insurance company is calling on Hawaii to shut down its beleaguered health insurance exchange, which was set up as part of President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Michael Gold, president and CEO of Hawaii Medical Services Association, says the state shouldn't keep spending money on the Hawaii Health Connector, a system that he says is financially unsustainable and does not work. (snip)

The rollout of Hawaii's health exchange was delayed and plagued with technical problems. The Connector was awarded more than $200 million in federal funds. It has used about $100 million. It signed up 9,217 individuals, plus 628 employees and dependents. To date, the Connector has raised only $40,350 in user fees, according to Nathan Hokama, the exchange's spokesman.

The argument that Obamacare was just a first step toward national single payer health care has always struck me as mistaken, because Obamacare is proving that govenrment cannot be trusted to undertake something so complicated and difficult. After all, the Veterans Admininstration is a living and breathing example of single payer health care, and it is riddled with problems, up to and including fraud, that leave people to die. Not only would single payer cost more, it would deliver inferior results, and we now have exmaples at home to prove it.

Hat tip: Drudge