Lately, in all of this debate over health care reform, I hear lots of people (conservatives, mostly) using the DMV as a scapegoat for offices run ineffectively by a government agency. A typical statement goes something like… “If you think the gov’t can handle controlling healthcare, think about the last time you had to go to the DMV”. I gotta say… I’m not finding the correlation. 

I just had to deal with the DMV today, actually. Registration renewal on one of our cars. Got the notice in the mail a few months ago, opened it up and saw that I can renew online! This isn’t the first time I’d done this, so I knew what to expect. 

I didn’t time myself, but I don’t think it took more than 5 minutes to complete these steps: Point my browser to www.dmv.ca.gov, find link for vehicle registration renewal, find link for online renewal, enter my license plate number, enter the Renewal Identification Number (from the mailed notice), enter my payment information (debit card), submit renewal. Poof! All done. My new tags will be mailed to me.

The last time I had to physically go into a DMV office, it was not terribly traumatic either… as some folks make it out to be. A few years ago I had to renew my driver’s license. Again, I received a letter informing me what to do. I made an appointment on www.dmv.ca.gov at my local DMV office. On the day of said appointment, I went in and followed the instructions for those who made appointments online, waited for my turn, filled out the proper papers, took a new photo (thank goodness!). Poof! All done… total time physically inside the DMV: no more than 40 minutes.

Prompt notification, easy access to make an appointment, ability to do some things online without any in-person visit at all, efficient in-person visit if needed. Hmmm… I’m having trouble seeing what’s wrong with my experiences with the California DMV. Tough to believe that I would be the only one that has this opinion. Share your experiences with the DMV… do you see it like I do, or differently?

Oh, and this is all beside the point that the HCR bill that recently successfully passed and was signed into law has no form of government take-over.