Obamacare Enrollment Deceptions Continues
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE
I made a big deal out of the poor enrollment in Obamacare throughout the winter.
There are more than 330 million Americans who should have healthcare insurance. In 2014, 15 million people lost their healthcare insurance because of Obamacare regulations.
At the end of the healthcare enrollment period for 2014 the Obama administration claimed there were 9 million enrolled in health insurance exchanges. The number was modified to 6.7 million enrollees because of mistakes in counting dental plans and non-payment of the enrollees’ initial premium.
Never the less President Obama did a victory lap and declared Obamacare is working. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is very difficult to keep track of all the false numbers thrown at the public.
The 2015 open enrollment period was delayed one month until after the mid-term elections for political reasons. President Obama and the Democrats wanted to keep the conversation about Obamacare out of the traditional media headlines.
The enrollment period of November 15th to December 31st was extended to February 15th 2015. On February 16th it was extended to March 1st 2015.
On February 16, 2015 Aaron Albright, as CMS spokesman announced,
“Americans who couldn't enroll in federal Obamacare insurance plans over the weekend because of computer glitches or long waits will now have until next Sunday to sign up, federal officials announced early Monday.
"We are pleased that the vast majority of consumers were able to apply and pick a plan through HealthCare.gov or its call center without a problem,"
"For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer than normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage."
“The special enrollment period begins Monday and ends Feb. 22.”
The extension was prompted by the Saturday outage of an Internal Revenue Service function for Obamacare enrollment, which could have prevented about 500,000 people from enrolling.
The enrollment period was extended to allow those predicted 500,000 to enroll.
The enrollment period was was extended from February 15th to February 22nd and the March 1st.
On March 1st a special tax penalty enrollment extension was started to expire April 30th.
Only 98,000 enrolled during that 2 month extension. The predicted five hundred thousand (500,000) people did not enroll as was announced.
On December 15th 2014 these were the published enrollment figures.
“ Confirmed 2015 QHPs: 3,039,524 as of 12/15/14”
“Estimated 2015 QHPs (Cumulative):
11/21: 610K (462K HCgov) • 11/28: 1.02M (765K HCgov) • 12/05: 1.80M (1.35M HCgov) Thru 12/15: 4.70M (3.52M HCgov”
Enrollment by state can be studied in the following link.
The Obama Administration bragged:
“The number of people enrolling or re-enrolling last week was considerably higher than in previous weeks. Week one saw 500,000 enrollees, week two had 300,000 and week three saw 600,000 sign up through HealthCare.gov.”
Only 3.4 million sign ups were confirmed to receive healthcare coverage by January 1,2015.
This is only seventy percent (70%) of the expected enrollment through 12/15/14. The enrollment had been extended before New Year to February15, 2015.
“The government estimates a total 10.7 million will enroll by February 15,2015. On February 2,2015 there were 7.53 million qualified enrollees. The original estimate in 2010 was 17.5 million. The first 2015 estimate enrollment in 2014 was reduced 3 months ago to 13 million. The enrollment figure was modified.”
Somehow, the February 22 deadline was extended to April 30, 2015. The Obama administration continues to make up the rules as the go.
On April 28th two days before the open enrollment period was supposed to close for 2015 http://acasignups.net/ publish these figures.
Confirmed Exchange QHPs: 11,897,180 as of 4/28/15
Estimated: 12.30M (9.38M via HCgov) as of 4/28/15
It is important to note that only 9.38 million people enrolled via HCgov in 2015. There is no change from the 2014 pre modification of the 2014 data.
It is not known how many enrollees paid their first premium.
None of these fact have been reported in the traditional media. Obamacare and the health insurance exchanges are not doing as well as President Obama says they are.
President Obama and his administrations continue to lie to Americans about enWhen is the American public going to demand a stop to the Obamacare deceptions?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
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