Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Obamacare’s Enrollment Numbers Aren’t Real Enrollment Numbers

So far, the administration has consistently refused to release information about actual health insurance enrollment through Obamacare. But as Scott Shackford noted, multiple news outlets are now reporting that, according to knowledgable sources, somewhere in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 people have enrolled in health insurance through Obamacare’s problem-plagued federally facilitated exchange system,

These aren’t official numbers, although an official release is expected sometime this week. But taken at face value, and presuming they are accurate, they indicate that Obamacare is struggling so far to meet its enrollment goals. An internal document released earlier this month by Rep. Dave Camp (R-Michigan) noted that the administration’s goal for the first month was 500,000 enrollees. Combine the reported federal enrollments with the 49,000 people estimated to have enrolled in state-based exchanges, and you still have less then twenty percent of the administration’s enrollment goal.

But these numbers shouldn’t be taken at face value. That’s because the administration isn’t actually counting enrollments. Instead, it’s counting the number of people who have placed health plans in their online shopping carts—not necessarily people who have signed up and agreed to be billed, and certainly not people who have actually paid the premium for the first month of coverage. It’s the equivalent of Amazon counting a TV sold every time someone puts a TV in his or her online shopping cart, regardless of whether or not they actually go through the checkout process.

Full article: http://reason.com/bl … t-numbers-arent-real



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