Cash for Clunkers: A Cautionary Tale for Healthcare Reform

[pete]

“Cash for clunkers” is a great example why the government is not capable of running the health care system. The clunker program offers up to $4500 for your low gas mileage, less than a 25-year old car.

When you trade in your gas-guzzler the dealer advances the $4500 credit, destroys the car, and bills the government. This is where the wheels come off the program. One dealer said it took five hours to fill out the paperwork for one clunker. Truth number one: Government runs on paperwork. So much for streamlining health care claims processing, and squeezing all those legendary “inefficiencies” out of the claims process.

Edited for copyright policy - KK

Cash for Clunkers: A Cautionary Tale for Healthcare Reform -- Seeking Alpha

 

[KittenKoder]

That is a well thought out article, it avoids the parroting better than most and actually has some valid points.

 

[DavidS]

I've gotta say -- what a great idea this was. As somebody who's worked on trade ins from customers in new car sales before, this shouldn't be so difficult. Have one piece of paper that gives the customer's name, address, etc. and then fill out the car's information... make, model, year and VIN number. I haven't seen the paperwork involved with this, yet. But I'm hearing nightmare stories all around... the website crashed, too much paperwork, etc. It's scary. The paperwork seems to be a problem.

What's completely unthinkable is that up to 250,000 new cars have been sold - in five days! The program started Monday and ran out of cash on Friday! That's 12.5 cars additional per dealership when a dealership's normal is about 5 cars a day during the week and about 15 or 20 on the weekend on average.

To think that 250,000 NEW cars were sold in 5 days is astonishing. I can't even phathom this and I spent a year selling new cars in one of the country's busiest dealerships where we sold 500 cars a month.

I don't blame the government for not being prepared -- there's no way dealerships could've prepared for this either.

 

[pete]

Can you say sub prime ...
there was a mad rush on home building/selling as well.

 

[oreo]

I've gotta say -- what a great idea this was. As somebody who's worked on trade ins from customers in new car sales before, this shouldn't be so difficult. Have one piece of paper that gives the customer's name, address, etc. and then fill out the car's information... make, model, year and VIN number. I haven't seen the paperwork involved with this, yet. But I'm hearing nightmare stories all around... the website crashed, too much paperwork, etc. It's scary. The paperwork seems to be a problem.

What's completely unthinkable is that up to 250,000 new cars have been sold - in five days! The program started Monday and ran out of cash on Friday! That's 12.5 cars additional per dealership when a dealership's normal is about 5 cars a day during the week and about 15 or 20 on the weekend on average.

To think that 250,000 NEW cars were sold in 5 days is astonishing. I can't even phathom this and I spent a year selling new cars in one of the country's busiest dealerships where we sold 500 cars a month.

I don't blame the government for not being prepared -- there's no way dealerships could've prepared for this either.

It's not a single piece of paper as you claim--it turns out it's a mountain of paperwork--(government style). Apparently the only ones that will be getting this stupidity subsidy--thanks to the taxpayers of this nation--will be the ones that were already approved for it--prior to the cut-off.