Consider this headline from AP today: "More than 10M enrolled this year under Obama's health law".
To the casual reader, it sounds like Obamacare is a major success. After all, getting just over ten million new people (and their families in some cases) covered with insurance is wonderful, isn't it? The answer, however, is that this is more public relations than reality.
First of all, the figure of 10.2 million that was put out by the Obama administration is for people who signed up for coverage for 2015 on the exchanges and who also paid their first month's premium. These are not all people who are newly covered. Those who had coverage last year and who signed up again for this year are included. These are not all people who had no coverage before Obamacare. Those whose policies were cancelled due to Obamacare and who were then forced to buy coverage on the exchanges are included. Also included are young people who needed coverage once they came off their parents policies. There is no data available to the public from which one can tell exactly how many people now have insurance who would not have been insured but for Obamacare. The best estimate is that the figure is closer to 2.5 million than 10 million.
The media never seems to point this out. Instead, we get cheerleading for a failed policy that has done little to increase coverage but at an enormous cost. They also never cover the story that most of these newly insured folks still cannot afford to visit their doctors because, after paying for the insurance premiums each month, they have no money left to use to meet the huge deductibles that are in most of the low cost Obamacare plans.
It's time to get rid of this mess and start over. This time the focus should not be on insurance but on providing healthcare to more Americans. There are many ways to do this that will work better and cost less.
To the casual reader, it sounds like Obamacare is a major success. After all, getting just over ten million new people (and their families in some cases) covered with insurance is wonderful, isn't it? The answer, however, is that this is more public relations than reality.
First of all, the figure of 10.2 million that was put out by the Obama administration is for people who signed up for coverage for 2015 on the exchanges and who also paid their first month's premium. These are not all people who are newly covered. Those who had coverage last year and who signed up again for this year are included. These are not all people who had no coverage before Obamacare. Those whose policies were cancelled due to Obamacare and who were then forced to buy coverage on the exchanges are included. Also included are young people who needed coverage once they came off their parents policies. There is no data available to the public from which one can tell exactly how many people now have insurance who would not have been insured but for Obamacare. The best estimate is that the figure is closer to 2.5 million than 10 million.
The media never seems to point this out. Instead, we get cheerleading for a failed policy that has done little to increase coverage but at an enormous cost. They also never cover the story that most of these newly insured folks still cannot afford to visit their doctors because, after paying for the insurance premiums each month, they have no money left to use to meet the huge deductibles that are in most of the low cost Obamacare plans.
It's time to get rid of this mess and start over. This time the focus should not be on insurance but on providing healthcare to more Americans. There are many ways to do this that will work better and cost less.
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