When the Obama Administration has bad news to tell the American people, they often wait until Friday afternoon to reveal information that is likely to foster criticism. After months of pushing Obamacare and encouraging signups, the Obama Administration quietly revealed on Sunday morning the abysmal year-end enrollment rates.
Whereas once this administration hailed Obamacare as a significant achievement, they are now quietly revealing its failures on a Sunday when they hope nobody will notice.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers forMedicare & Medicaid Services, released a brief statement saying,
“More than 1.1 million people enrolled in a qualifiedhealth plan via the Federally-facilitated Marketplace from October 1 to December 24, with more than 975,000 of those enrolling this month alone.”
Roughly another million have signed up through state exchanges, bringing the total of enrolled citizens to around 2 million- well short of the Obama Administration’s low-ball expectation of 3 million by the end of the year.
However, while Democrats are likely to try and sugarcoat the enrollment rate, Democrats should brace themselves for bad news as the revealed enrollment number hardly paints a full picture of Obamacare’s failures.
The Obama Administration has remained incredibly cagey on outlining the details as to what “enrolled” means. Hesitant to even reveal early enrollment numbers, the Obama Administration has often included people who have selected a plan in their enrollment figures; however, there is no information being released that reveals how many of these “enrolled” people have actually finalized the insurance-buying process by actually paying for the selected plans. With the enrollment numbers being continually manipulated, it’s impossible to tell how many of these 2 million people have actually purchased plans and how many have merely window-shopped.
Further, the Obama Administration has touted the success of Medicaid expansion and included these numbers in their bragging. While many more Americans are now on Medicaid thanks to Obamacare, that is not, necessarily, a good thing as these newly-insured Americans are receiving health insurance that is heavily subsidized by the federal government. With critics already wondering about the economic unsustainability of a healthcare plan that hinges on dramatic rate increases for young people to offset the costs of healthcare for the elderly or unhealthy, providing millions with insurance who pay little or nothing cannot be considered a sign of success.
Most of all, the quiet revelation of the puny enrollment numbers conspicuously neglects to address the elephant in the room; even if we were to accept that 2 million have enrolled in Obamacare, the number of people who have lost their insurance thanks to the disastrous healthcare overhaul is conservatively-estimated to be no less than 5 million.
With 5 million having lost their insurance thanks to Obamacare and only 2 million having enrolled, at best, the Obama Administration could only claim a net enrollment rate of -3 million. Roughly 3 million Americans are worse off now than before Obamacare.
With 2014 around the corner, the DNC is still pretending as if Obamacare will be a win for Democrats. At this rate, it is looking highly unlikely.
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