For months, the Obama administration has told us that they just don't know what portion of the 4.3 million folks who "enrolled" in health insurance plans under Obamacare had actually purchased the policy. You see, unless the buyer pays for the insurance, he or she remains uninsured. It was pretty clear that this "unobtainable" number was easily knows to Washington but that the truth was being kept under wraps as long as possible. Well now, that truth is leaking out. The feds are still not giving out the data for people who bought on the federal exchange, but most of the various state exchanges do not operate on the "protect Obama at all costs" basis, so they are spilling the beans. In nine states that contain just over 20% of the nation's population, the numbers show that only 79% of those who enrolled in plans actually paid for those plans through the end of February.
So what does this number mean? The simple answer is that it makes the already awful enrollment figures even worse. The administration trumpeted that 4.2 million people had signed up for coverage on Obamacare exchanges through the end of February. That figure is way below the goal announced last fall. When we reduce the number by 21%, it comes to only 3.3 million after five months of heavy efforts by Obama and company. Remember, the goal for the six month sign up period that ends in three weeks was a total of seven million new policies. With three weeks to go, Obamacare has not even attracted half that number. Add in the fact that most of those buying insurance on the exchanges previously had coverage which got cancelled due to Obamacare and the results are staggeringly poor. As of the end of February, there were fewer than one million policies actually bought by people who were not previously covered. It makes Obamacare a joke.
For those of you who are going to write and tell me that 800,000 or 900,000 newly insured is a big deal, let me remind you of something that Obama and his spokesmen had to say last fall. When the news first broke that five million people had seen their individual coverage cancelled due to Obamacare, the president told us that five million was only a tiny portion of the nation; on the whole that small a number really did not matter. Well now the number is 900,000 or so and that is much, much smaller than the five million that we were told by Obama to ignore. The truth is that the law has failed and done so miserably.
So what does this number mean? The simple answer is that it makes the already awful enrollment figures even worse. The administration trumpeted that 4.2 million people had signed up for coverage on Obamacare exchanges through the end of February. That figure is way below the goal announced last fall. When we reduce the number by 21%, it comes to only 3.3 million after five months of heavy efforts by Obama and company. Remember, the goal for the six month sign up period that ends in three weeks was a total of seven million new policies. With three weeks to go, Obamacare has not even attracted half that number. Add in the fact that most of those buying insurance on the exchanges previously had coverage which got cancelled due to Obamacare and the results are staggeringly poor. As of the end of February, there were fewer than one million policies actually bought by people who were not previously covered. It makes Obamacare a joke.
For those of you who are going to write and tell me that 800,000 or 900,000 newly insured is a big deal, let me remind you of something that Obama and his spokesmen had to say last fall. When the news first broke that five million people had seen their individual coverage cancelled due to Obamacare, the president told us that five million was only a tiny portion of the nation; on the whole that small a number really did not matter. Well now the number is 900,000 or so and that is much, much smaller than the five million that we were told by Obama to ignore. The truth is that the law has failed and done so miserably.
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