Peruse the above image of the lockscreen of my iPad at 3:48 p.m. today. Here’s what I thought I understood from those headlines, which all came in within an eight-minute period, while I was in a meeting and couldn’t stop to read further:
- More than 100,000 used healthcare.gov to pick a plan in October — way more than previously reported!
- No, only about 26,000 signed up.
- No, it was 106,000!
- … but that was way fewer than hoped.
- No, wait; it’s just 26,000. That’s according to Sebelius.
- No, according to Sebelius, it’s 106,000!
When you go beyond the headlines, you see that the 106,000 includes people who signed up through state exchanges (which SC does not have), and only 26k through the federal exchange. And the 106,000 number is way, way fewer than the Obama administration had hoped for and projected.
But, according to Sebelius, about a million people have gone far enough through the process to determine that they are eligible to enroll in a plan.
And off we go again…
Oh, and you’ll notice at the top of that stack of headlines that one had just come in on a story with far easier-to-understand, but more horrific, numbers…
Related Posts
You think Sebelius is going to do anything BUT spin any number she can find as positive? It’s a disaster. They are even counting people who have selected a plan into a shopping cart but haven’t actually enrolled or paid yet. A private company would be audited and fined for that kind of shady accounting.
What many people don’t understand is that the website is not the problem. There are many problems – not all technical. Plans being cancelled, doctors and hospitals not being available on certain plans, healthy people making the decision to pay a fine instead of paying for someone else’s insurance, navigators instructing people to lie in order to maximize subsidies…
The technical problems will be worse next month as people who do need insurance rush to sign up by December 15th (the latest date you can sign up and be covered by January 1). That’s when the real stress test of the system will take place. It will fail. It will fail because of the dependence on other systems to integrate with healthcare.gov.
At risk Democrats looking at 2014 are already jumping ship. Obama’s approval rating is at its lowest point and still dropping.
This is the Obamacare many of us knew was coming.
Obamacare GOOD news: You can stay on your parents’ policy until you’re 26.
Obamacare BAD news: Your parents’ policy just got cancelled.
I haven’t been this excited for a report of government numbers since the Orange Crop Report in 1983.
Clarence Beeks!
I’m so glad someone got that reference.
Think he, Beeks, and the gorilla are still together? They looked like a happy couple or at least the gorilla did.
In order to meet the goal of 7 million enrollees by the end of March, Obamacare must sign up 57,500 people every single day for the next 4.5 months. If those numbers are not achieved, expect large rate increases next year.
Here’s what Joe Wilson had to say:
The Obamacare news is worse than the MSM yet admits: Insurance competition, once heralded as a saving grace for Obamacare has DECLINED. in 75% of the states as insurers have pulled out. But that is not the worst news for health insurance competition and lowered rates.
The worst news is that the public was deceived all along by this half truth: “The Affordable Care Act allows health care to be sold across State lines when both States agree and consumer protections are maintained.” – Steven B. Larsen J.D., Deputy Administrator and Director Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services on “Expanding Health Care Options: Allowing Americans To Purchase Affordable Coverage Across State Lines” before Committee on Energy & Commerce, Subcommittee on Health United States House of Representatives, May 25, 2011.
What was omitted or ignored by LAWYER Steven B. Larsen was this tidbit that still holds:
To date, although all states have long had the authority to do so, only six have enacted across state lines legislation. … As a result, none of the across state lines laws resulted in a single insurer entering the market or the sale of a single new insurance product.” Conclusion (excerpt): “The proposals also underestimate the administrative hurdles necessary for full implementation.
State regulators will not accept the terms and conditions of other states Insurance Departments.
________________________
By the way, lawyers head almost all state Insurance Departments. Georgia is one of the 6 states out of 50 that had long ago enacted across state lines insurance legislation. In fact, the lawyer who directs SC’s Department of Insurance, Raymond G. Farmer, was formerly Georgia’s Deputy Insurance Commissioner.
The Obama administration lawyers, lobbyists and Cabinet, plus the majority of congress had to have known that insurance competition across state lines was a myth.
Note that thestate.com is reporting that 572 South Carolinians have signed up for Obamacare…
NPR gets the prize for most optimistic-sounding headline: “More Than 106,000 Chose Health Plans Under Affordable Care Act”
While the WashPost said, “Only 106K signed up on health exchanges in Oct.”
Which seems more on point.
Either way, though, it’s spin, right? Probably better to go with something neutral, like “Sebelius says 106K signed up on health exchanges in Oct.” Leave the “more thans” and “onlys” to the editorialists.
AP says less than 27,000 through Healthcare.gov. But that’s not even the worst of it. By far, the worst story is that the multi-million dollar piece of equipment HHS has can’t actually count customer transactions, like say…a cash register or a Casio can.
Now, it’s obviously a lie, right? But it’s a lie that still shatters any claim they may have to elementary competence. First, because they are claiming they can’t count. So, hypothetically, if it’s not a lie, do I want them to handle my complex insurance?
But also the lie itself is an act of incompetence at covering butt. Because it is far worse than telling the truth about how messed up everything is. You would think HHS would just admit that things are really messed up. That’s nothing new. That story is already out there. But nooooooo. HHS says things are going swimmingly and decides to invent this story about just not being able to sum up the number of actual sales. The way a child running a lemonade stand can.
It’s counting. Nothing fancy. 1, 2, 3…follow the trend here. We have machines for this, but we don’t really need them.