An alternative health insurance connection

Maryland may become the first state to scrap its dysfunctional health-insurance exchange website, apparently conceding that there’s no fixing the technological problems that have plagued the online system since it was launched in October. The Baltimore Sun reports that officials with the Maryland Health Benefit System are looking to adopt Connecticut’s online system, considered among the best at signing up people for private insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act.

We hope that Hawaii lawmakers are paying attention, as they consider options for the similarly ailing Hawaii Health Connector. Not every problem can be solved with more money. Sometimes it takes a new approach.

A little regulation won’t eliminate lunch trucks

Even before gourmet trucks became trendy, lunch wagons have enjoyed an honored place in Hawaii culinary history. We still love our plate lunches.

But as unpopular as the City Council’s Bill 1 might be with mobile vendors, it’s hard to deem the legislation unfair. Food trucks have key advantages that eateries renting fixed locations don’t have.

The truck owners must now bid on a limited number of spaces operating in the Capitol district as part of a two-year pilot program, which bars unpermitted trucks from operating there between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Some vendors complain that trucks will be put out of business. But aren’t people still ready to eat before 10:30 a.m. or after 1 p.m.? Hey, that’s a Hawaii tradition, too.