ObamaCare's Dwindling Success

In April, the President took a victory lap declaring that ObamaCare did better than expected by enrolling 8 million people; arguing that their original goal was 7 million.  Not a lot was known about those 8 million at the time.  Who was being insured?  Did they previously have insurance? How many paid their premiums?  How many were getting subsidies?  What was the average cost?  And, to this day, Obama's Health and Human Services Dept. hasn't answered any of those questions; leading many to believe that 8 million might not be a solid number.

Since then, independents, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), have been working overtime to answer those very important questions.  Now, collectively, the following has been revealed:

1. Approximately 80 to 85 percent have paid for their insurance.  This means that conservatively, only about 6.8 million -- not 8 million -- really are insured under ObamaCare.
2. 57% formerly had no insurance.  So, only 3.9 million of the 38 million, who were uninsured, signed up for ObamaCare; meaning that 34 million would rather pay the penalty.
3. The 43% that previously had insurance, and signed up for ObamaCare, did so because they were primarily able to get free or nearly free federally subsidized policies.
4. GAO just reported that ObamaCare will add $6.2 Trillion to the long-term deficit over the next 10 years.  This, when the President assured the country that his signature healthcare program would not add one dime to the deficit.
5. Some good news (??).  2015 insurance premiums will only go up by 8%.  That's 4 times the estimated inflation rate and about 8 times the rate that incomes are expected to increase.  The good news is that, previously, double digit increases had been predicted. 

The bottom line in all this is that the 8 million is a bogus number.  Too few of the uninsured are being covered; which, by the way, was one of the primary reasons for implementing ObamaCare. It is a lot more expensive than we were told it would be.  And, no where to be seen, is the promised $2500 savings in healthcare insurance premiums.

Now, how's that for success!

References:

Obama hails 8 million enrollees for insurance under federal health-care law: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-hails-8-million-enrollees-for-insurance-under-federal-health-care-law/2014/04/17/db1892b2-c670-11e3-bf7a-be01a9b69cf1_story.html

Obamacare Exchanges Are ‘Disappointing’ With Fewer Than 4 Million Newly Insured. The Government Hoped for 26 Million: http://dailysignal.com/2014/06/24/obamacare-exchanges-disappointing/

GAO Report: Obamacare Adds $6.2 Trillion to Long-Term Deficit: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/341589/gao-report-obamacare-adds-62-trillion-long-term-deficit-andrew-stiles

Obamacare premiums rising in 2015, but not at 'death spiral' pace (+video): http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/0618/Obamacare-premiums-rising-in-2015-but-not-at-death-spiral-pace-video

Proof That Obama Fudged The Signup Number

The day after the midnight signup deadline had passed for ObamaCare, Presidential Press Secretary Carney proudly announced the following:

“With the remarkable surge in enrollment, 7,041,000 signed up for health insurance before the midnight deadline yesterday.”

Just a couple of hours later, in an Rose Garden press briefing, the President announced ObamaCare's success with 7.1 million signups; with the 41 thousand now being remarkably rounded up to one-tenth of a million.  However, that rounding was a complete violation of the rounding rules.  The true number should have remained at 7 million. But, you see, Obama and his people probably surmised that if the signups came in exactly as predicted at 7 million, people would be highly skeptical. So, to avoid that probability, they just fudged it with a 59,000 rounding error so the media could report that Obama not only met his goal but "exceeded it" by an extra hundred thousand enrollees.

So much of what comes out of this White House is constantly being skewed to look more positive.

References:

White House: More Than 7 Million Sign Up for ObamaCare: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/obamacare-deadline/white-house-more-7-million-signed-obamacare-n68956

White House: 7.1 Million have signed up for ACA: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/01/obama-aca-7-million-enrolled/7162291/