"Obamacare Enrollments Surpass 1 Million"

[applegrove]

Obamacare Enrollments Surpass 1 Million

by Jeffrey Young at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/obamacare-enrollment_n_4421797.html

"SNIP....................................



WASHINGTON -- More than two months after Obamacare's ugly debut, the number of Americans using the system is starting to grow: Nearly 1.2 million people are on track to have health coverage in place next year from the law's health insurance exchanges, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

From Oct. 1 through Nov. 30, almost 365,000 people enrolled into private health insurance via the federal and state marketplaces and more than 803,000 were deemed eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to the department.

The federally run exchanges in more than 30 states accounted for 137,000 of the enrollments in private coverage, and the remaining states signed up 227,000. About 1.9 million more people had been determined eligible for coverage through the marketplaces, but hadn't yet chosen a health plan. The new data don't include an apparent flurry of enrollments in the early days of December.

HealthCare.gov, the federal portal to health coverage in more than 30 states, still has problems, but appears to doing what it's supposed to do: enabling consumers to do shop and sign up for health benefits for next year.




...................................SNIP"

[doc03]

1. That's nice but it can't work with 800,000 of them on Medicaid

it needs paid enrollees and that part is in big trouble..

[kro32]

2. I'm curious

How many of these people were from the group that already had insurance and were dropped however?

Are they new people that never had insurance before or are they all being counted together?

That makes quite a large difference in determining success or failure.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Why does it matter? I had insurance before and now have it for $884 less per month.

I call that a success.

[applegrove]

4. That's great NYC. Also if people came from other insurance to the ACA it still

makes it function like they were not insured. Everyone paying into ACA helps.

[NYC_SKP]

5. And I had great help through the 800 number call center.

I went for a daily walk, usually two miles (40 minutes) and brought my phone and ear buds.

A thirty minute hold time wasn't bad at all.

And the guy who helped me from the Fresno call center was named, get this, "Osama"!

I got email confirmation of my selection before the call concluded.

Not too bad!

[Pirate Smile]

6. OMG! Awesome! What are you going to do with that $800+ extra per month you'll now have?

[NYC_SKP]

8. Well the old COBRA payment was $1,432.29/month and I never had that bill until I resigned from a job

in April, so it's not so much like having 800 more a month as it is not being screwn by quite so much.

I am, though, looking at a second smaller home near the ocean that I would have to rent out for a few years but then I'll have it when I'm ready to leave the central valley here in California.

[kro32]

7. It matters more than you think

It matters because although I have not been dropped, if I were my estimate would be double the price I currently pay for the same coverage because I do not qualify for any subsidies.

Now I doubt I am the only person in the nation who fits into that category so the question to ask is how many actually DO fit into that category and will that make them less likely to vote democrat in the next election.

Simply saying there are a certain number of enrollments that qualify it as a success is not looking at all aspects of the issue. Maybe its possible that the majority of these people are not happy they had to sign up, maybe they are, maybe it doesn't matter to them.

We won't know for certain until more data is released.

[NYC_SKP]

9. You probably would have been dropped anyway. People talking about being dropped...

...need to realize how many were being dropped before ACA and quit blaming ACA.

Premiums were rising all along, greed is one of the reasons we need ACA.

And even if a few will pay more, the number of people who never had insurance but can now have it easily offsets the incomvenience for the very few who may pay more, most of whom can well afford it.

[kro32]

10. Well..

I'm not actually blaming the ACA, just going by the Presidents own apology so you should write him a letter and tell him that it wasn't necessary to take the blame for the ACA dropping people.

Beyond that however, you are assuming its only an inconvenience to a few people because obviously you want to support it but the dropping poll numbers for the democrats across the board tell us a different story. Considering recent events in all areas are not that much different than recent events over the last 7 years, other than the ACA, we can safely assume that its the ACA that is causing this drop in support which clearly tells us that most do not believe as you do.

Issa, just came out and estimated that the almost 400 million dollar website is going to take nearly 1 billion to fix and that is obviously not going to be considered a success. There are many aspects about the ACA which people like but there are also many that people don't like and to accurately gauge how this will relate to success in elections, we have to consider all the items involved in this issue.

Simply towing the party line is not really going to get to the truth.

[NYC_SKP]

11. The truth is that when you ask the people, not the polls, they love it. Republicans are going down.

Mitch McConnell is out.

Thanks for posting anyway.

I'm wondering why you opened your account two years ago but didn't have even your second post until tonight.

[kro32]

12. Because

it doesn't matter if I post a lot or not.

And this may be news but the even Nate Silver is saying the democrats are going to have a hard time just keeping what they have. They have far more senate seats up in 2014 and you may dismiss the polls but they do tend to be a fairly accurate assessment of what's going on in the nation.

Now, given that there is a year left until elections, its possible that the ACA can have no more problems and turn out to be a very wonderful program but given what we've seen so far, I would not think that a wise bet. We've already heard inklings about hospitals and doctors not accepting the various programs under the exchange so that can only have a negative effect.

We've still no idea how people are going to respond to being fined for not having health insurance and if that will translate into a negative for democrats in the elections. There is still a lot that has to play out so declaring a success at this stage is very premature.

[Cha]

20. Your negative input "not a wise bet" is noted for

the absolute bullshit it is.

[JaneyVee]

34. Look, the best choice may not always be the most popular choice.

If the senate is a toss-up then so be it. But those who made the ACA a reality will sleep better knowing they made a huge difference not only for millions of Americans but for our country as well.

[Cha]

13. And, I'm wondering why you are citing the known serial LIAR, darrel issa,

for anything on this board?

[kro32]

15. Because

He's in charge of the House Oversight Committee and a member of Congress and therefore I figure it would be a topic that should be discussed on a political forum.

Are we not allowed to mention "those who have no name" here.

lol

Anyways, the New York Times has reported that 600 million have already been spent and didn't know how much more would be spent. Given that this article was written in mid-November and we know that they have continued spending on it, I think that its safe to assume the number is going to hit 1 billion.

[Cha]

16. I don't care what he's in charge of .. he's a liar who has

made it his business to lie about anything to bring down his administration. So what he says means absolutely zero.

ACA/AKA/Obamacare is going to succeed in spite of all the negative bullshit being spread by RW assholes.

[kro32]

18. Well go by the New York Times estimate then

It really doesn't matter what Issa says since he didn't make up the numbers, he was just repeating them.

The larger point here that I was making is that this is an awful lot of money to correct something that was supposed to cost a third of that and be working. Now we could chalk that up to a "oooops" moment and maybe it was but you have to admit that it doesn't look good.

I'm not trying to cast blame here but I am trying to determine how this, and other problems, may affect how people vote in the upcoming elections since it is my field of study. I have no interest in simply pretending things are going to work out the way I want them too, I like to base my conclusions on facts.

[blue14u]

21. My first comment is

Issa..

Second, if 1 million have enrolled and are happy, then we already have

1 million votes for democrats if they are registered. I suspect that most are.

Third.. Using Issa instead of the NYT was a bad choice, and very telling imo,

but IT WAS your choice.

[SoapBox]

22. Issa...a national disgrace.

ALL the bullshit he has tried...and any number of times he's been busted on crap he's tried to spew...

It's absolutely criminal that he isn't hauled away in chains.

[blue14u]

25. He truly is a

complete disgrace to our Nation.
He has used his position to become wealthy on the backs of
taxpayers, and his treatment of our President is the most shameful
of all of the republicans.
An arsonist, thief, and liar.

Maybe we can run someone against him and boot him out as he
needs to be..I can't believe someone dare use his name on DU, except to call him out for HIS crimes! (name duly noted and radar up for that one.)

A truly disgusting criminal.

btw... thank you applegrove for the good news!!

[NYC_SKP]

30. Look over there: Half our budget going to endless wars.

Now what was that you were saying about a one-time cost to bring us a website for better healthcare?

[JDPriestly]

17. Apparently the site is up and running. That's all we need.

In addition, people can pick up a phone and enroll that way. For many Americans, enrolling over the phone is preferable, more convenient and easier in any event. So, the website is nice, but not necessary.

Issa just likes to stir up trouble. He has been wrong before. Benghazi is a good example. He put Hillary Clinton on the stand and practically burned her at the stake. Now the truth emerges. The CIA did not do its part to help the Ambassador and staff in Benghazi until it was way too late, and had the CIA responded quickly, it still would not have helped avoid deaths. Somehow Issa was too partisan to investigate the reality. He only investigated to get the politically hoped-for outcome. Issa is not a good source for information even if he is in the House, even if his Republican colleagues did place him in a leading position.

[kro32]

19. I realize they can

Yes you can use a phone but if it were that simple then why even bother spending this abhorrent amount of money to fix the website?

I am wondering if this will have a negative reaction among the voters and give them less confidence to vote democrat. It seems a huge, glaring error.

[SoapBox]

23. Plain and simple...

There needs to be all variety of enrollment venues, giving options to MILLIONS of Americans.

Next.

[kro32]

24. That's fine

that's funny.

I agree that more options are fantastic but your complete dismissal of any problems when the repair costs almost triple the price to build it is troubling.

I see many people on this board acting similar to how democrats acted in 2009 when they thought they were invincible. Pretending like because Obama won that there were no problems out there.

Then they were tossed out en masse in the mid-terms.

I think a wiser course of action is to quit pretending everything is dandy and admit the problems and try to get out in front of it.

[4lbs]

31. So, you are complaining about spending 1 billion dollars on something that will

positively help millions of Americans.

Meanwhile, we were spending that much per day on a needless war in Iraq, that helped how many Americans? A handful.

BTW, Darrell Issa? Give me a break.

[NYC_SKP]

32. That member has been shown the door.

It was inevitable. They signed up and had one post in 2011.

Then all of a sudden they're posting RW talking points against ACA.

[Cha]

14. Great December News for the People who are getting a whole

new kind of health care, applegrove.. thank you!

[rusty fender]

26. How successful is a program that

has "more than a million enrollees" when there are 40 million who are uninsured? Don't we have to wait until at least 75% of those who are uninsured enroll before we can call ACA a success?

[RBInMaine]

27. It's going to take a few years, but it's on the way. That's the point.

[BellaKos]

29. Just about on track. The real number will be next year. n/t

[BellaKos]

28. Over at a Right Wing site

There was a poll that posed the question about whether members would sign up. Most people said, "Hell, no." Quite a few said they wouldn't be signing up because they were covered by the VA or Medicare. But although they didn't need to sign up, they wouldn't anyway because ... wait for it .... they didn't want to give any personal information to the government.
It was hilarious!
And I would have set them straight by taking the trouble to inform them of the facts, but I couldn't 'cause I'm banned.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. good

[no more banksters]

35. New Deal vs Obamacare: one reality and one desperate try

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2013/10/new-deal-vs-obamacare-one-reality-and.html