The Affordable Care Act is taking on water and a frustrated President Barack Obama stepped up with his pail and started bailing this week. No one is more upset than he is about the colossal failure of the Healthcare.gov website, the president said Monday. He maintains the overall plan is sound.

Reassurances aside, a growing number of Americans are wondering if the act’s problems are much more serious than just some badly written computer code. It didn’t help things that evidence emerged this week that for many rural Americans, the price of health care coverage offered in the new online insurance exchanges is higher than plans currently available.

The reason beind that is the lack of competition. Insurance companies are attracted to urban areas where there are lots of customers and lots of facilities. But in rural counties where there are much fewer people, doctors and clinics, many exchanges have only one or two providers. That’s not enough competition to bring down costs.

It might just be that, only a few months from now, the president will looked back fondly on the days when all he had to was address the technical problems plaguing his “signature” achievement – and not its true deficiencies.

Newsletter