The Heath and Human Services Department reported this afternoon that 3.3 million people enrolled in private insurance plans in the first four months of the 6-month open enrollment period. The number two Democrat in the House Steny Hoyer tweeted that this is proof there is “a clear demand for affordable, quality health care.”
But here are 8 problems with those Democrats in office and in Media who act overjoyed about those disastrous numbers:
1) About 6 million health insurance policy plans were cancelled at the end of 2013 due to Obamacare. Signing up 3.3 million in exchange still leaves your glass almost half empty.
2) It is unclear at this time how many of those 6 million cancelled plans had 2, 3 or more people in it. Meanwhile, when it comes to Obamacare sign-ups, people may decide to sign-up for private plans for themselves while placing their children on the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) where the eligibilities for children to enroll is very high. Other couples may decide that a spouse which has health issues will sign up while the healthy spouse will stay uninsured and accept the penalty instead of paying big bucks for a health plan. Or, couples may decide to buy a high-end plan for the non-healthy, or pre-exiting condition spouse while buying a junk cheap Bronze plan for themselves. Hence, what was one happy family on one plan last year is now a family scattered all over the place with different (or non) plans.
3) Before enrollment started in October 2013, the CBO projected that the exchanges will have about 7 million signups by the end of March. To reach the 7 million goal, the exchanges will need to sign-up in February and March more people that signed-up in the last four months combined. It’s very unlikely to happen and therefore the CBO reduced its projections last week saying that sign-ups in the open enrollment period will be only 6 million. (If this 6 million mark will be reached, Dems would boast that “we reached the goal set by the CBO” hoping you would forget what the original goal was.)
4) A key talking point today by Democrats is that many young people enrolled last month, but the CBO in its original projections said that 40% (or 2.8 million) of the 7 million sign-ups will be young people who would pay into the system but not really use it because they are mostly healthy, hence making it possible to subside the care of sick and old people. But as of the latest numbers only about 800K of the sign-ups are young people. That’s not even 1/3 of the original goal.
5) Reports quote industry insiders as saying that 1/5 of actual (not registered at exchange) enrollees have not paid a dime and their plans will be void.
6) Multiple reports from different health companies and a survey by a health industry research firm over the last months indicate that solid majorities of sign-ups are people who had plans last year. It was canceled so they are looking for new ones, or they are simply dropping their old plan hunting for cheaper, subsidized plans (without noticing that those “cheaper” plans indeed cut premiums but at the expense of someone subsidizing it; at a cost of higher co-pays; crazy deductibles compared to the old plans, and being locked-out from key hospitals).
7) If you don’t have an active policy at the end of March (or shortly thereafter, depending what King Obama decides), you will face a penalty the value of 1% of your income when filing your 2014 tax papers. ACA law says the penalty is $85 or 1% of your income; whichever is more. Well, the only way $85 is more than one percent of your income is if you earn $8,400 a year which by then you are anyway eligible for free healthcare. At any rate, many people want to avoid a fine of $700, $1,000 or what ever the number may be and therefore are out there signing-up for a plan regardless the cost.
8) More than 60% of enrollees took a Silver plan which is the second to last in a four-level system of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The problem with these plans is – aside the fact that it pays only 72% of many bills – it leaves you with an annual out of pocket cost of up to $12,700 if you are a Struggling Class Family earning $60,000 annually. One fifth of Obamacare enrollees were sucked into buying the Bronze plan which is essentially a catastrophic plan outlawed by Obamacare. It pays even less of the bills compared to the Silver plans and it has crazy deductibles.