Remember the surge in Iraq and the one that followed in Afghanistan. Yesterday the feds announced another surge. This time they told us that enrollment in Obamacare had surged in January. Of course, that was false as their own numbers show. There were 1.1 million people who selected policies on the federal and state exchanges during the months of January. That is only about 60% of the number who selected policies during the previous month. Only the Obama administration could describe a 40% drop in numbers as a "surge" with a straight face. Truth simply seems not to matter to them.
So, putting aside the phony description, let's take a look to see what the actual figures tell us. The biggest riddle right now is determining how many people gained coverage under Obamacare. There may have been 3.3 million who have selected policies so far, but how many of these were people who did not previously have coverage. The government claims not to know, but one study done a month earlier put the figure at 11%. That would mean that at most there were 350,000 people with new coverage under Obamacare.
This may not sound like an important number to some, but it is the key to whole structure of Obamacare. The basic idea of the law is that millions upon millions of people will get insurance for the first time since they are required to do so by the individual mandate. The premiums that these millions of newly insured folks pay are supposed to cover the costs of the older, sicker patients who also get insurance. What has happened instead is that millions of people have seen their insurance cancelled and the replacement policies costing much much more than the old ones. As a result, only some of the people who were insured have gotten replacement coverage. We know this because there were over 7 million policies cancelled and only 3.3 million who have signed up for new ones. On top of this, people who are older and sicker are signing up; my guess is that they are nearly all the newly insured. That makes the net effect more sicker people with insurance and fewer healthy ones in the same situation. There will not be excess premiums generated to pay for the additional costs. Instead there will be major shortfalls.
One last note is also in order. I have pointed this out repeatedly, but the Obamacrats still announce numbers for people who have put a plan into their shopping basket rather than the number who have actually purchased and paid for the insurance. We do not know by how much this inflates the figures, but the announced figures could easily be twice as high as the actual number who bought a new plan. At least in one state, that is what a careful review showed.
Sadly, the government is not giving us all the figures that it has. I guess it is just too bitter a pill for the Obamacrats to swallow.
So, putting aside the phony description, let's take a look to see what the actual figures tell us. The biggest riddle right now is determining how many people gained coverage under Obamacare. There may have been 3.3 million who have selected policies so far, but how many of these were people who did not previously have coverage. The government claims not to know, but one study done a month earlier put the figure at 11%. That would mean that at most there were 350,000 people with new coverage under Obamacare.
This may not sound like an important number to some, but it is the key to whole structure of Obamacare. The basic idea of the law is that millions upon millions of people will get insurance for the first time since they are required to do so by the individual mandate. The premiums that these millions of newly insured folks pay are supposed to cover the costs of the older, sicker patients who also get insurance. What has happened instead is that millions of people have seen their insurance cancelled and the replacement policies costing much much more than the old ones. As a result, only some of the people who were insured have gotten replacement coverage. We know this because there were over 7 million policies cancelled and only 3.3 million who have signed up for new ones. On top of this, people who are older and sicker are signing up; my guess is that they are nearly all the newly insured. That makes the net effect more sicker people with insurance and fewer healthy ones in the same situation. There will not be excess premiums generated to pay for the additional costs. Instead there will be major shortfalls.
One last note is also in order. I have pointed this out repeatedly, but the Obamacrats still announce numbers for people who have put a plan into their shopping basket rather than the number who have actually purchased and paid for the insurance. We do not know by how much this inflates the figures, but the announced figures could easily be twice as high as the actual number who bought a new plan. At least in one state, that is what a careful review showed.
Sadly, the government is not giving us all the figures that it has. I guess it is just too bitter a pill for the Obamacrats to swallow.
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