In the category of gifts that keep on giving, or more appropriately scandals that keep on scandalizing, nothing can compare to Obamacare. One aspect of this mess got more attention this week when the story came out in Colorado about senator Udall (D-CO) pressuring the state department of insurance to lower the numbers of people in the state whose policies were cancelled due to the law. Last fall, that department announced that a 249,000 policies held by individuals were cancelled due to the onset of Obamacare. Udall, who is on somewhat shaky political ground, told the department that its numbers were wrong and asked them to revise those figures downward. To say the least, this was a strange request since it is the state department that got notified about which policies had been cancelled, not the office of the senator. The state officials had the actual number and the senator had no way of knowing what that number ought to be. Nevertheless, in a brazen display of political pressure, senator Udall told the state officials to lower their figure.
Of course, Udall is not the only Washington politician who has been playing with the numbers on Obamacare. Just think of these examples:
1. The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House have told us repeatedly that they cannot release the numbers of people who have purchased policies from the Obamacare website until three weeks have passed after the end of that month. That mantra was repeated again and again through October, November and December. During that time, the numbers were not only bad, they were appallingly bad. Then, in December, the figures improved. Oh, they were still bad, but not as bad as they had been. Suddenly, both HHS and the White House were able to give daily updates on how many had signed up. In other words, HHS and the White House had lied when they previously told us that they did not have the numbers.
2. And then there are those numbers of people who had bought insurance on the exchange. We got those figures on multiple occasions from both HHS and the White House. The problem, of course, is that the numbers released are not actually for people who had purchased insurance, despite what was reported. The Obamacrats actually released the number of people who had selected an insurance policy by putting it into their "basket" on the website, whether or not they went on to actually purchase that policy. As anyone with a website that sells products will tell you, there are a great many people who put products into their baskets but never actually buy them. That means that the paltry numbers reported by the government as having bought insurance were inflated. And remember further that to buy insurance, you also have to pay for it. The Obamacrats cannot tell us how many people actually paid for the insurance after selecting it, since the website section that is supposed to process those payments is still not working three and a half months after the site went live. A survey comparing the figures issued by the government with figures compiled from insurers in a few states found that only between 5 and 15 percent of the numbers released by the government actually completed the purchase of insurance. Most likely, that percentage rose as we moved into January (the study was in 2013), but it is unlikely that it went above 50%. Accordingly, the figures released by the feds were at least double the actual figures.
3. Who could forget Obama's famous promise that Obamacare would lower premiums by 2500 dollars per family? That too was a phony number. It is inconceivable that Obama actually believed it to be true. It was just another way to cook the Obamacare books to make things look better.
There are other phony numbers (remember how Obamacare would reduce the deficit), but these are enough to illustrate the point. Our government does not see the need to tell the truth to Americans. Our president and his people like to use statistics so that what they say seems true, but they use numbers that they just seem to make up. We deserve better.
Of course, Udall is not the only Washington politician who has been playing with the numbers on Obamacare. Just think of these examples:
1. The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House have told us repeatedly that they cannot release the numbers of people who have purchased policies from the Obamacare website until three weeks have passed after the end of that month. That mantra was repeated again and again through October, November and December. During that time, the numbers were not only bad, they were appallingly bad. Then, in December, the figures improved. Oh, they were still bad, but not as bad as they had been. Suddenly, both HHS and the White House were able to give daily updates on how many had signed up. In other words, HHS and the White House had lied when they previously told us that they did not have the numbers.
2. And then there are those numbers of people who had bought insurance on the exchange. We got those figures on multiple occasions from both HHS and the White House. The problem, of course, is that the numbers released are not actually for people who had purchased insurance, despite what was reported. The Obamacrats actually released the number of people who had selected an insurance policy by putting it into their "basket" on the website, whether or not they went on to actually purchase that policy. As anyone with a website that sells products will tell you, there are a great many people who put products into their baskets but never actually buy them. That means that the paltry numbers reported by the government as having bought insurance were inflated. And remember further that to buy insurance, you also have to pay for it. The Obamacrats cannot tell us how many people actually paid for the insurance after selecting it, since the website section that is supposed to process those payments is still not working three and a half months after the site went live. A survey comparing the figures issued by the government with figures compiled from insurers in a few states found that only between 5 and 15 percent of the numbers released by the government actually completed the purchase of insurance. Most likely, that percentage rose as we moved into January (the study was in 2013), but it is unlikely that it went above 50%. Accordingly, the figures released by the feds were at least double the actual figures.
3. Who could forget Obama's famous promise that Obamacare would lower premiums by 2500 dollars per family? That too was a phony number. It is inconceivable that Obama actually believed it to be true. It was just another way to cook the Obamacare books to make things look better.
There are other phony numbers (remember how Obamacare would reduce the deficit), but these are enough to illustrate the point. Our government does not see the need to tell the truth to Americans. Our president and his people like to use statistics so that what they say seems true, but they use numbers that they just seem to make up. We deserve better.
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