Obamacare Enrollment is Out of Control
Obamacare supporters have cheered an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that purports to show that 10.3 million people obtained coverage through June 30 due to Obamacare. Wow! That’s, like, over two million more than the Administration reported after the end of open enrollment in April! The article is essentially a re-purposing of the Gallup-Healthways surveys of the uninsured (which I have criticized) for an academic audience.
Let’s accept that after open enrollment, over two million more people have signed up for taxpayer-subsidized Obamacare coverage, either via health-insurance exchanges or Medicaid. Consider:
- The Government Accountability Office recently sent a dozen “secret shoppers” to Obamacare exchanges, armed with false information about their eligibility for enrolment. Eleven of them were approved and enrolled.
- Weeks after the open enrollment closed, the “back end” of Obamacare’s information-technology infrastructure was yet unbuilt; and the Administration has declined to report on its progress so far.
- Immediately after open enrollment, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services stopped issuing monthly reports disclosing data about those who sign up.
- Between October and December 2013 alone, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services failed to confirm eligibility of 2.89 million Obamacare applicants. (That’s well over half of those who signed up in 2013).
That Obamacare exchanges continue to enroll hundreds of thousands of people each month is not an achievement to be cheered. It is a scandal that needs to be stopped.
“GAO Sting Finds It Easy to Fake It, Get Obamacare Premiums”
Looks like ObamaCare isn’t very accountable when identifying eligible enrollment. Just imagine how many of that 10.3 million are actually supposed to be ineligible!
“the “back end” of Obamacare’s information-technology infrastructure was yet unbuilt; and the Administration has declined to report on its progress so far.”
Probably because it is still unbuilt. I bet it will remain that way. ObamaCare logic is: if its broke, still don’t fix it. We can still enroll “eligible” individuals.
Now I want to know what the new guidelines are for being eligible. It sounds like anyone is now eligible for ObamaCare.
Examples may include:
Being a person
How are people still signing up? Did enrollment officially end March 31st? Either there was a loophole, or they stayed open out of the kindness of their hearts..
I have same issues as Dale. So are they saying there were 2.3 million more people (from 8 million to 10.3 million) whom, for whatever loophole reason were allowed to sign up after the deadline. So about 30% more people signed up after thee original march 31st deadline!? Until the numbers are made public to the people on how they were arrived at, I don’t believe anything they say about Obamacare. HHS should be able to, with relative ease, tell us in 1 day precisely how many people signed up. It’s all in computer systems that cost hundreds of millions to program so this basic number should be the easiest to arrive at. The fact that they aren’t makes any info suspect.
There are life events, like getting divorced or losing your job, that allow you to sign up. But how will the Administration audit these correctly, when it cannot even confirm if you are a citizen?
“Obamacare Enrollment is Out of Control”
ObamaCare in general is out of control. Faulty enrollment, wonky risk corridors and incorrect subsidies being issued. This health care reform is crumbling as we speak.
Sadly, this administration will use any legal and illegal means of getting as many people enrolled in order to make it look like a popular success. Case in point: the taxpayer-funded subsidies used to pander to the public that have been given to those in non-expansion states are illegal. Moreover, HHS has no incentive to (nor the competence) to accurately verify subsidy eligibility because it wants as many people enrolled, no matter what the cost to taxpayers.
Another reason why more people are signing up is because it’s the law to do so. In spite of the arbitrary and politically-motivated delays, employers and individuals who do not have employer-provided healthcare are still going to be required to sign up.
So, rather than focusing only on the raw number of people supposedly enrolling in the ACA, the true measure of its success ought to be patient outcomes and economic/labor effects.
Absolutely! If they passed a law saying that everyone who entered a post office automatically enrolled in health insurance, would that mean anything? The number of insured would go up, but it would not result in better health care.