I would not be surprised if Obama and Reid suddenly relented and agreed to a one year delay in the individual mandate. It's not that the country is on the cusp of wave of bipartisan pragmatism but rather it might be advantageous after a sober assessment of the numbers enrolling in Obamacare. A one word description would catastrophic for two word try train wreck. The early number coming from the state sponsored exchange, Cover California were a positive until it was revealed that the 7,000,000 original number represented page views; not visitors. In other word, something like 700,000 visitors each viewed 10 pages. Eventually the official number of visitors was reported to be 645,000. Six hundred and forty-five thousand from a population of 38 million is a great deal less than an enthusiastic welcome, representing only about .016% of said population. That's not exactly black Friday!
In a video entitled Nobody Is Enrolled in Obamacare in California which you may view here and was uploaded the 3rd of October, a California television station reports that after two days no one in California had actually purchased a policy but 7100 people had submitted applications. Wow! that's 7100/38 million and you can to do the math. A news story coming from an insurance industry source reported there was not a single sale in the entire state of Louisiana. Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut was boasting on C-Span and Twitter that his state sponsored exchange had signed up 167 people the first day. One must suppose the poor chap is too dumb to know failure when he sees it. At that rate Connecticut would only insure 28,980 after 180 days from a population of about 3.5 million. Depending on income some of these will just be put on Medicaid. In contrast IBM removed 110,000 retirees from its healthcare plan.
The glitch is not in the server software; it's in the law. I would imagine the Obama administration is thankful for the online glitches as they mask the disaster that is Obamacare. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that after the enrollment period ends in March that there will be fewer people insured with the only two up ticks coming in the forms of premium rates and Medicaid recipients. That could be terminal for many political careers and cause partisan of both persuasions to change their opinions of Justice John Roberts.
2 comments:
What if they gave a health care system and no one came?
The Affordable Care Act could be almost as popular as the Syrian War.
It appeals to two groups. Low income will go on Medicaid and people with pre existing ills who will screw up the risk pools. It's a piss poor deal for about everyone else.I came across a guest editorial while researching this post. The mope was so proud to be going on Medicaid but Medicaid isn't insurance and I doubt if he will be very happy if he ever has to use it.
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