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Upon further review, MNsure stinks

THUMBS DOWN: An outside review of MNsure, the Minnesota health insurance exchange that’s supposed to help people get health insurance before the March 31 federal government deadline, was released this week. In the opinion of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Division, the program is deeply flawed and probably can’t be fixed in time for the deadline.

The report listed several technical flaws like not enough capacity, lack of access for consumers and workers alike, too many rules and inadequate testing, but the most glaring flaw is that there seemed to be no one in charge or responsible for fixing the program as it rolled out and problems began. There was “no accountable leader,” according to the report.

The only ones doing their jobs, apparently, were the ad agency workers who developed the Paul Bunyan ads to encourage people to sign up on a system that doesn’t work very well.

Gov. Mark Dayton has said he is ultimately responsible for the failure of the system. Voters should remember that in November.

There they go again

THUMBS DOWN: Republicans have been working hard trying to “rebrand” themselves, to show people they are not totally insensitive to women after losing a couple of elections over incredibly ignorant statements about abortion, pregnancy and “legitimate” rape. Then former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee stands up in front of the Republican National Committee this week and tries to define the issue of the so-called War on Women thusly: “If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control, because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.”

As Ronald Reagan would have said, “Well, there you go again.” Time for some more sensitivity training.

Let stadium come

THUMBS UP: With the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the funding plane for the new Vikings stadium this week, state finance officials are free to sell $468 million in bonds and let the stadium construction begin as scheduled.

Whether you agree with the idea of the stadium or not, it is a fact and it is going to be built. Last minute nuisance lawsuits will do nothing but delay the construction, perhaps, and raise the final cost.

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