Little-Acorn
Gold Member
Nearly two weeks ago, Obamacare opened for business, opening "exchanges" where people could sign up for it.
"Could" might be too nice a word. Participation is MANDATORY, with Federal law imposing stiff penalties if you don't sign up.
Now the numbers are starting to trickle out: Almost nobody is signing up, even with threats of penalties and IRS crackdowns hanging over their heads.
It looks like the grim facts are proving true, despite rosy media predictions: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T WANT OBAMACARE, AND NEVER DID.
How many of the nonexistent signups, are due to the huge problems and glitches in these "exchanges"?
OTOH, how many people took a look at the huge problems and glitches, and said, "Forget it, I'm not signing up for something that poorly run!"?
How many of the signups they DID get, are people who tried to sign up once, ran into glitches and crashes, and came back later to try again, start from scratch, and wound up signed up twice? Or three times? Or ten?
And how many never wanted to sign up for something that charges such high prices for the diminished service Obamacare offers, in the first place?
Almost as odd, is the fact that the signup numbers are such a "trickle". When asked how the signups are going, Federal officials keep saying they don't know, they don't have the information. Yet the employees of the exchanges, have all that info at their fingertips, and are telling reporters about it.
Do the top official have THAT poor communication with their own employees? Or are they simply afraid to admit the truth: That Obamacare is provinto be a huge flop? That even when threatened with penalties, people still don't want to sign up?
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Oh My: Just 51,000 Americans Have Enrolled in Federal Obamacare Exchanges? - Guy Benson
Oh My: Just 51,000 Americans Have Enrolled in Federal Obamacare Exchanges?
Guy Benson | Oct 11, 2013
Remember, the Obama administration has been pretending that they don't have this data, which nobody believes. They've been sitting on it because it's super-embarrassing and underscores the magnitude of their failure and incompetence. Sadly for Sebelius & Co., the media has these things called "sources," and the UK Daily Mail gives the world its first glimpse of Obamacare's trainwreck-by-the-numbers. Wow:
Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the first week the Healthcare.gov website was online, according to two sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services who gave MailOnline an exclusive look at the earliest enrollment numbers.
The career civil servants, who process data inside the agency, confirmed independently that just 6,200 Americans applied for health insurance through the problem-plagued website on October 1, the day it first opened to the public.
Neither HHS nor the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would comment on the record about the numbers. Enroll America, the president's organization of health care 'navigators' who are charged with helping Americans sign up, didn't reply to a request for information about its level of success so far. The White House also did not respond to emails seeking comment.
But several administration officials have claimed this month that they didn't have access to the kinds of raw figures MailOnline obtained from the people who work for them. And the anemic totals suggest a far lower level of interest in coverage through the Affordable Care Act than the Obama administration has hoped to see.
A devastating paragraph. First of all 51,000 people out of the entire combined populations of 36 states is microscopic. It's a rounding error. It's as if a sold-out Yankee Stadium signed up -- and nobody else. In a nation of 300 million.
Questions: Of the lucky 51,000, how many aren't actually signed up, thanks to another related snag? And how many are duplicates?
The British paper also smacks down the White House's obvious lie that they aren't aware of these numbers. The figures were provided to the press by people who report to the very officials who say they don't have access to them.
At the state level, potential enrollees' experiences have varied, though not even the uber-prepared state of Maryland has met with much success. In Iowa, home to a hybrid state/federal exchange, five people have signed up. In Hawaii, which runs its own exchange, zero people have obtained coverage.
The Mail article suggests that public interest in Obamacare is unsustainably low, given the enrollment levels required to keep the program afloat. I think that's a premature conclusion. How many people have tried to sign on and failed due to all the glitches and crashes?
"Could" might be too nice a word. Participation is MANDATORY, with Federal law imposing stiff penalties if you don't sign up.
Now the numbers are starting to trickle out: Almost nobody is signing up, even with threats of penalties and IRS crackdowns hanging over their heads.
It looks like the grim facts are proving true, despite rosy media predictions: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T WANT OBAMACARE, AND NEVER DID.
How many of the nonexistent signups, are due to the huge problems and glitches in these "exchanges"?
OTOH, how many people took a look at the huge problems and glitches, and said, "Forget it, I'm not signing up for something that poorly run!"?
How many of the signups they DID get, are people who tried to sign up once, ran into glitches and crashes, and came back later to try again, start from scratch, and wound up signed up twice? Or three times? Or ten?
And how many never wanted to sign up for something that charges such high prices for the diminished service Obamacare offers, in the first place?
Almost as odd, is the fact that the signup numbers are such a "trickle". When asked how the signups are going, Federal officials keep saying they don't know, they don't have the information. Yet the employees of the exchanges, have all that info at their fingertips, and are telling reporters about it.
Do the top official have THAT poor communication with their own employees? Or are they simply afraid to admit the truth: That Obamacare is provinto be a huge flop? That even when threatened with penalties, people still don't want to sign up?
----------------------------------------------------
Oh My: Just 51,000 Americans Have Enrolled in Federal Obamacare Exchanges? - Guy Benson
Oh My: Just 51,000 Americans Have Enrolled in Federal Obamacare Exchanges?
Guy Benson | Oct 11, 2013
Remember, the Obama administration has been pretending that they don't have this data, which nobody believes. They've been sitting on it because it's super-embarrassing and underscores the magnitude of their failure and incompetence. Sadly for Sebelius & Co., the media has these things called "sources," and the UK Daily Mail gives the world its first glimpse of Obamacare's trainwreck-by-the-numbers. Wow:
Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the first week the Healthcare.gov website was online, according to two sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services who gave MailOnline an exclusive look at the earliest enrollment numbers.
The career civil servants, who process data inside the agency, confirmed independently that just 6,200 Americans applied for health insurance through the problem-plagued website on October 1, the day it first opened to the public.
Neither HHS nor the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would comment on the record about the numbers. Enroll America, the president's organization of health care 'navigators' who are charged with helping Americans sign up, didn't reply to a request for information about its level of success so far. The White House also did not respond to emails seeking comment.
But several administration officials have claimed this month that they didn't have access to the kinds of raw figures MailOnline obtained from the people who work for them. And the anemic totals suggest a far lower level of interest in coverage through the Affordable Care Act than the Obama administration has hoped to see.
A devastating paragraph. First of all 51,000 people out of the entire combined populations of 36 states is microscopic. It's a rounding error. It's as if a sold-out Yankee Stadium signed up -- and nobody else. In a nation of 300 million.
Questions: Of the lucky 51,000, how many aren't actually signed up, thanks to another related snag? And how many are duplicates?
The British paper also smacks down the White House's obvious lie that they aren't aware of these numbers. The figures were provided to the press by people who report to the very officials who say they don't have access to them.
At the state level, potential enrollees' experiences have varied, though not even the uber-prepared state of Maryland has met with much success. In Iowa, home to a hybrid state/federal exchange, five people have signed up. In Hawaii, which runs its own exchange, zero people have obtained coverage.
The Mail article suggests that public interest in Obamacare is unsustainably low, given the enrollment levels required to keep the program afloat. I think that's a premature conclusion. How many people have tried to sign on and failed due to all the glitches and crashes?
