Report: Only 5 Iowans Have Signed Up for Obamacare

The Weekly Standard ^ | 10/10/13 | Daniel Halper

[Uncle Miltie]

"Have some kind of system where you can get a tattoo or your hair done and sign for Obamacare at the same time."

[jmacusa]

Kind of fits, don’t it?

[Teacher317]

Iowa went for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Where are his supporters?

[QualityMan]

dumba$$ college idiots in ames and iowa city....

believe me....people in IA are laughing at this kenyan fraud, too...

[PoloSec]

Most are probably hackers and gamers seeing who can get in and make all the way to the end.

Only the best gamers can bust their way through the obstacles to complete the obamacare game.

[grania]

The answer, if everyone weren't trying to profit from federal funds, would be what existed up to the 1960s. That's clinics, many connected to the training of doctors and nurses. Those who needed medical care might make an appointment, but it was generic and they couldn't choose their doctor and they knew there'd be waiting time. They took emergencies.

Everybody paid at least some minimal amoounts. For everyone else, it was based on ability to pay. If you didn't want to divulge financial information, you went and paid the full amount. The clinics weren't about the most expensive treatments; they were about adequate care. Don't like it, go to a more expensive doctor.

If that's the solution that comes of this mess, I'm all for it. It's amazing how cautious people were of getting medical care when they had to pay at least part of it.

[Amendment10]

We need to make sure that the 5 reported people are actually not deceased or pet rocks or data that was being used to test system.

[steve86]

I don’t have a link at the moment but Washington State was at about 10,500 a couple of days ago.

What I don’t understand about these states with only a handful of enrollments — partly due to website problems — is: Do they not have paper enrollment forms? Or are they not counting them? In fact, I applied with a paper form. In my case it was not because of website problems but because I had already filled out the form before the website opened.

[steve86]

It’s pretty unlikely many are fake at the completed enrollment stage because they are using Experian or Equifax (I forget which) to verify identities. Of course, a small number could get through but not 40%.

[barmag25]

I think that was accounts made, not actual plan purchases

[steve86]

No, it wasn't just accounts created, although most are completed enrollments but not yet paid (most people, of course, will wait until December to make the first payment). And there are a lot of Expanded Medicaid signups in that but over 10,000 that aren't. Tuesday article:

Washington state said 9,452 people have fully enrolled in coverage set to begin Jan. 1. Most of them, about 8,500, are going to be covered by Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income people, with the remaining 916 covered by health plans sold by private insurers through the online state marketplace.

Another 10,000 people have completed applications for coverage from private health insurers through the exchange but have not yet paid for it. Exchange officials said they believe that many, if not all, of those people are waiting until December to make their initial premium payments, as Dec. 15 is the deadline for payment receipt for coverage to begin Jan. 1.

"The number of applications we've received is a strong start to our six-month open enrollment period," said Richard Onizuka, CEO for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. "While we've seen a high level of initial interest, we know that individuals will continue to shop and wait to purchase a health plan until much closer to the effective start of coverage on Jan. 1, 2014."