The administration says 365,000 people selected commercial health care plans from state and local Obamacare websites by the end of November.
Democrats cheered the new numbers, which were announced Wednesday, partly because many progressives worry that the Obamacare tax-and-healthcare program may crash and burn their chances in the 2014 election. Since October, Obama’s plunging poll numbers have almost wrecked progressive hopes of big wins in 2014.
The new claim doesn’t say how many people have pushed their way past faulty and missing software, to actually sign contracts with the insurance companies for the expensive and restricted plans permitted by the Obamacare network.
Also, before October, officials had expected website to help to 800,000 people sign up by the end of November, 3 million by the end of December, and seven million by the end of March, 2014.
The number of plan-selections is also far below the number of plans that have been cancelled by President Barack Obama’s ambitious effort to recreate the nation’s healthcare system. At least 4 million plans have been cancelled so far, and millions more cancellations are expected during the next 12 months.
The report does not describe how many of the applicants are young and healthy. That’s a critical number, because if too few young and healthy people are paying into the system, then prices for the many older and sicker people will rise drastically in 2015.
The report suggested that many additional people are pushing their way through the site to buy commercial plans. For example, the reports says that 2,307,283 people have been confirmed eligible to enroll in a plan. Of those, 944,531 are eligible for taxpayer subsidies, and 1,942,601 have not chosen a plan.
Another 803,077 have been approved for entry into the Medicaid program.
The report claims that 39 million people visited the state and local Obamacare website.
The largest number of plan selections have taken place in California, which is home to many of the nation’s poorest and least-skilled people.
107,087 state residents have picked plans, giving the state almost 30 percent of the total sign-ups.
On the federal Obamacare website, 45,513 plans were picked by New York residents, 17,908 by Florida residents, and 14,038 by people in Texas.
The report does not use the tainted “Obamacare” term, but sticks to the less-damaged term, “Health Insurance Marketplace.”
Read more:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/11/administration-claims-365000-sign-ups-in-obamacare-so-far/#ixzz2nBpaV0HlBy Neil Munro
