Showing posts with label Obamacare Enrollment Numbers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare Enrollment Numbers. Show all posts

Monday, November 17, 2014

Hire the European comet scientists!

November 17, 2014 Health Insurance , HealthCare.gov 0 Comments
State, Federal Insurance Sites Face First-Day Hiccups

Jayne O'Donnell and Laura Ungar, Nov. 15, 2014, USA Today

Open enrollment on the federal HealthCare.gov site kicked off relatively smoothly in many parts of the nation Saturday, although there were reports in some areas that consumers and brokers had problems logging into accounts.

Healthcare.gov launched amid much anticipation after last year's botched rollout.. Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 23,000 people had submitted applications in the first eight hours.

Just as the federal log in issues appeared resolved Saturday afternoon, issues on state-run sites cropped up.

Read more: www.usatoday.com


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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Whatever kinks, Ocare is now a fact--for now…

November 13, 2014 Affordable Care Act , Amy Goldstein 0 Comments
Obama Officials Work On Health Site Contingency Plans, Enrollment Nears

Amy Goldstein, Nov. 9, 2014, Washington Post

As the Nov. 15 beginning of open enrollment nears, administration officials have been eager to draw public attention to the fact that parts of the computer system have been rebuilt, online insurance applications will be easier to use and new federal managers are in charge.

“We’re really making sure that that Web site works super well,” President Obama said at a news conference a few days ago. “We’re double- and triple-checking it.”

Despite such efforts, the confidential documents written in recent weeks hint at elaborate backup planning that undercuts the administration’s predictions that an improved HealthCare.gov will be able to handle everyone who wants to sign up. More broadly, they reflect the high stakes confronting the administration as it tries to avoid last year’s mistakes and deal with new threats to the Affordable Care Act: the Republican gains in the midterm elections and the Supreme Court’s decision to review the government insurance subsidies that are a linchpin of the law.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com


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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Final OCare Headcount Lacks Details On Who's Paid, Newly Insured --Fuzzy math...march toward single-payer

May 03, 2014 Heritage Foundation , House Energy and Commerce Committee 0 Comments
By Marguerite Bowling, May 2, 2014, Blog.heritage.org

 More than 8 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance plans under Obamacare’s online exchange, officials say, but some details remain vague.

 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported Thursday that 8.01 million selected a plan from the federal exchange under the Affordable Care Act. This is the final report for the first enrollment period of Oct. 1 through the March 31 deadline, plus some widely publicized extensions.

 “Together we are ensuring that health coverage is more accessible than ever before,” outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.

 Although the 45-page enrollment report gives more insight into the gender, age, and financial assistance status of the new “enrollees,” it does not say how many had paid their first month’s premium. The Obama administration also did not disclose how many of the enrollees previously were uninsured.

 Instead, officials promoted the 2.2 million young adult (ages 18 to 34) that made up 28 percent of the participant pool. Officials originally projected that, to be successful, Obamacare’s state and federal exchanges would need nearly 40 percent of new enrollees to be relatively healthy young adults — and thus spread out health care costs.

 The announcement came a day after the House Energy and Commerce Committee chargedthat only 67 percent of Obamacare enrollees paid their first month’s premium by the extended deadline of April 15.

Read the full story:  blog.heritage.org

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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Shocking Secret Behind Obamacare Enrollment Numbers --Serious court challenge to OCare's existence

April 22, 2014 CATO Institute , Obamacare 1 Comments
By Michael F. Cannon, Apr. 16, 2014

Barack Obama wants you to know he enrolled 7.5 million Americans through Obamacare’s health insurance Exchanges. What he doesn’t want you to know is how.

Federal courts may soon rule that President Obama induced the majority of those enrollees to enroll by offering them taxpayer dollars he has no legal authority to spend.

If the courts put a stop to that unauthorized spending, a majority of Exchange enrollees would suddenly face the full cost of Obamacare coverage, and enrollments would plummet.
“The president is literally forcing taxpayers, without any legal authorization, to subsidize two out of every three Exchange enrollments.”
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, states have the option of establishing an Exchange themselves, or letting the federal government do it. The Act also authorizes subsidies that can require taxpayers to cover nearly the entire premium for Exchange plans. Among the eligibility criteria for those subsidies is a requirement that recipients enroll “through an Exchange established by the State.”

Such requirements are routine, and this one is and unequivocal. Countless federal programs offer subsidies only in states that agree to implement them. The PPACA’s legislative history is littered with Republican and Democratic proposals to offer various subsidies — including tax credits and Exchange subsidies — exclusively in states that establish Exchanges.

The eligibility rules for the PPACA’s Exchange subsidies specify nine times, without deviation, that recipients must enroll “through an Exchange established by the State.” House Democrats even complained about this part of the Senate-passed PPACA before they themselves approved it, so they knew exactly what they were sending to the president’s desk.

Confounding supporters’ expectations, 34 states declined to establish Exchanges. Under the plain terms of federal law, subsidies are therefore available in the 16 Exchanges established by states, and not available in the 34 Exchanges established by the federal government.

In 2011, however, the Obama administration unilaterally announced it would force taxpayers to subsidize insurance purchased through federal Exchanges as well. It cited no statutory authority for its decision, and has stubbornly refused to follow its own law despite immediate and sustained criticism.

In January of this year, the Obama administration began spending billions of dollars of unauthorized subsidies to induce Americans to enroll in the 34 Exchanges established by the federal government. The president is literally forcing taxpayers, without any legal authorization, to subsidize two out of every three Exchange enrollments.

Read the full story:  www.cato.org

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Politico's Nather: Obama Can 'Spike the Football' Because OCare 'Is Beating Expectations' --He expels gas, they clap

April 19, 2014 CBS News , Healthcare Reform 0 Comments
By Tom Blumer, Apr. 18, 2014, Newsbuster.org

David Nather at the Politico apparently wanted to make sure that those who don't follow the news closely see a triumphant headline ("Obama Spikes the Football") and a congratulatory opening paragraph at their computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Sure, the Politico reporter gradually threw in all kinds of qualifications after that, but his mission is largely accomplished: Cause those who don't click through to believe that Obamacare is functioning as intended, and — especially in the headline — communicate the message that the debate about the statist health regime's existence is really over. He can say that he did his job while at the same time keeping most people away from the more complicated reality. In that sense, Nather is right there with reporters at ABC and CBS who claim without verifiable evidence, as Rich Noyes at NewsBusters noted earlier this afternoon, that the program has achieved "a major milestone." Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):
Obama spikes the football 
Finally, President Barack Obama can say his health care law is beating the expectations. 
Well, one of them, anyway. It’s safe to say that no one — not even him — predicted that the Obamacare sign-ups would soar as high as 8 million, the figure he announced in an appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday. That number, at least on its face, truly does go beyond the enrollment goals the administration set for itself — and makes the recovery from the website debacle even bigger. 
That doesn’t mean the number tells everything the public needs to know about who’s really covered, of course. And not all of Thursday’s numbers beat the expectations — the share of young adults still isn’t ideal, according to some health care experts. 
But the final enrollment numbers, along with other recent survey findings, are strong enough to give the Obama administration a cushion against some of the most common criticisms of the enrollment trends.
Read the full story:  www.newsbusters.org
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