Thursday, February 19, 2015

11.4 Million ObamaCare Signups Is No Big Deal - Just Ask The President

This is from Investor's Business Daily:
... [The] 11.4 million number [the Administration touts] is just as bogus as the 8 million number Obama was extolling last year.

In both cases, the administration simply counted all those who picked plans, not those who have actually paid for insurance. When they finally produced an accurate count last year, the number was 6.7 million. If that same drop-off occurs this year, the real enrollment number will be more like 9.5 million.

That's about where the administration's lowered forecast put it, and significantly below the Congressional Budget Office's 13 million forecast.

So much for working "better than we anticipated."

Even if 11.4 million had signed up, this is hardly a sign that the law is a big success.

Before ObamaCare, roughly 16 million owned insurance on the individual market — and they all managed to buy it without any government hand-holding or taxpayer-subsidized premiums. Even if you count those who bought plans off the exchanges, the number today isn't much changed from that.

And a new Heritage Foundation study finds that, while the individual market has expanded, it's largely because ObamaCare has pushed millions off their employer plans. Heritage found that in the first nine months of last year, the individual market increased by 5.8 million, but 4.9 million had lost employer coverage.

Creating a new class of people dependent on government for things they used to be able to afford on their own is not a sign of progress.

Also, it's worth recalling that back in 2013, Obama was dismissing those 16 million who had bought insurance on their own as a trifle, after many of them learned that their plans were being canceled because of ObamaCare.

Obama tried to downplay this mess by saying "we're talking about 5% of the population." Jay Carney, Obama's press secretary at the time, even instructed reporters that "when you do this story, just please remember that the universe you're talking about here is 5%. That's the whole individual insurance market — 5% of the population."

So by Obama's own standard, the latest ObamaCare sgn-up numbers are insignificant....
And with respect to Obamacare "working a little better than we expected" as the President said this week Bob Laszewski had this to add:
... The administration spent $2.2 billion on developing and fixing
But 17 months after its original launch––and five years after the law passed––the backroom still has not been completely built. 
There are now about 7 million people receiving health insurance premium subsidies in the federally run exchanges. But can't pay the insurance companies. Insurers are still getting paid based upon a workaround that involves them manually filling out worksheets––for 7 million people. There is no formal date for when this will be fixed. also can't reconcile the cost sharing subsidies the lowest income people get form Obamacare––like lower deductibles and co-pays. 
This lack of an automated enrollment process not only causes lots of headaches but also makes the enrollment numbers the administration is reporting awfully soft. One carrier told me they only ended up with half of the net January enrollments originally reported to them. 
So, has Obamacare met your expectations?