As many as one-fourth of the people who thought they had obtained health insurance through the government’s website, HealthCare.gov, may be “orphans,” officials confirmed last week.

That is the term federal bureaucrats have coined to describe people who enrolled for insurance through the website – but are not covered because the government never sent information on them to insurance companies.

Even now, with the website allegedly repaired – according to the White House – as many as one in 10 people who enroll may be victimized by the same problem.

A private insurance company operating a similar program would be shut down by the government. In all likelihood, its executives would be prosecuted for fraud.

But President Barack Obama’s administration can get away with what amounts to fraud because he says so.

Obamacare has become more than a mistake. If the government can’t get the program to do what it is supposed to do, and pretty quickly, then it should shut it down until it can.