More Exchange Problems that Are Not Caused by High Demand

A man is silhouetted behind a sign at an Affordable Care Act outreach event hosted by Planned Parenthood for the Latino community in Los Angeles, CaliforniaAs few as 1 in 100 applications on the federal exchange contains enough information to enroll the applicant in a plan, several insurance industry sources told CNBC on Friday. Some of the problems involve how the exchange’s software collects and verifies an applicant’s data…

Experts said that if Healthcare.gov‘s success rate doesn’t improve within the next month or so, federal officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but whose enrollment applications have not been processed. (More)

HT: Tyler Cowen.

Comments (12)

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  1. JD says:

    “federal officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but whose enrollment applications have not been processed.”

    This is the kind of disaster that will ensure the ObamaCare demise.

    • Dewaine says:

      From a political theater standpoint, it would be interesting to see this drag on and then have Hillary trying to distance herself from “universal health care”.

      • JD says:

        That would be entertaining, although that kind of ineptitude would destroy the lives of a lot of people. Hopefully we don’t get anywhere near that.

        • Dewaine says:

          True, I don’t expect it to drag on that long. What I do expect is that the left will start saying that we haven’t gone far enough and the only fix is single payer health care. At that point I don’t know which side will win. Hopefully the Republicans consumer-driven health care instead of the status quo.

    • BHS says:

      Let’s hope so. But we still are going to need to have a real, nationwide discussion of the substantive problems with Obamacare, not just its technical issues.

      • JD says:

        Definitely, although, I believe it was Perry who pointed out on a previous post that implementation problems are the most readily felt. The populist sentiment against them may be the key to turning the tide of public opinion.

  2. Perry says:

    I’m surprised that anyone thought the federal government could handle this to begin with. What’s sad is all of these people mistakenly thinking they’re going to finally get affordable health care.

    • Dewaine says:

      Particularly young people. Unfortunately I think that this will further entrench a lot of people in the single payer camp.

      • Perry says:

        Many theorize this has been the goal all along. It’s just a shame so much time and money will have been wasted.

        • Dewaine says:

          I am one of them. The whole thing just doesn’t add up. Compromising with a bill that nearly artistically falls apart? It’s too much. Even liberal economists aren’t this stupid.

          • John Fembup says:

            I agree with you.

            It is a sneaky, cowardly, but ultimately autocratic tactic.

            And it works with more than half the people. So we’ll get it.

            As Mencken said, we’ll get it good and hard.