2,393 Marylanders buy health insurance on state exchange

The Baltimore Sun ^ | October 18, 2013 | By Meredith Cohn

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Almost 2,400 Marylanders have bought insurance in the first 17 days that the state's new health care exchange has been open, according to new data released by the Maryland Health Connection.

Almost 34,900 have created accounts – a sticking point for many users.

The state also reported more than 23,100 have been told if they will receive subsidies to buy insurance.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Forward!!

[BCW]

like one liberal reported stated this past WED on Fox News - - ALL OF AMERICA is signing up....wow, so like - America has only 10,000 Citizens....uhm....maybe he was referring to legal Citizens...

[Gen.Blather]

I would say the only safe play for the insurance carriers is to back out of the exchanges. The death spiral should be obvious at this point. If the companies get stuck with only losing policies for an entire year (assuming the quit next year) they’ll be hurt badly.

[tacticalogic]

And curiously, they’re all named “Julia”.

[Iron Munro]

Let’s see....

2,393 signed up out of a population of 5,900,000

They still have a way to go.....

[DAC21]

“And curiously, they’re all named “Julia”.

Good one!

[PoloSec]

This is great they are in...can’t wait to see what happens when they show up at the doctors office.

What you talkin bout, what is a $175.00 co-pay, they said I was covered...

Lady you have to go back and talk to your insurer, and good luck with that.

[SueRae]

I didn’t read the whole article, just the excerpt.

Lets do the math... 2393 BOUGHT insurance (their claim)

“The State has told 23,100 have been told they will qualify for subsidies”

10:1 Supplemented vs. Payers is what I see. Unsustainable.

[duckman]

I would bet a majority of those 2400 are either pre-existing conditions or Medicaid transfers. Why else would a person struggle to get thru the maze of screens and errors?

[grania]

The insurance companies are already hurt badly. When they and the politicians they own got together and passed a system that gives Obama his mandate and insurance companies their imagined profits, we got the worst of both worlds. Now, they've spent all that money setting up their programs and they've destroyed the business they did have selling insurance by choice based on actuarial considerations. That could be why the corporate-elitist-globalist RINOs actually want Obamacare; their paymasters have found perceived ways to profit from it.

I agree with you. The insurance companies might be better off cutting their losses and backing out of the program. They're probably not going to have control of raising premiums in the future.

[relictele]

The Obamacare figures are as believable as those issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics or any other government source.

[csmusaret]

Well then. That was worth $634 Million.

[Heart of Georgia]

“ALL OF AMERICA is signing up”

Maybe he meant South America.

[bert]

——The insurance companies might be better off cutting their losses and backing out -——

It would appear that my medicare advantage insurer United has done that. The process seems selective and not universal, but United has identified doctors, groups of doctor and hospitals that are not acceptable.

This practice is in effect here, in Connecticut and in California. My medical group has not renewed their contract with United. It is not clear who rejected whom but presently there is no contract. My hospital took out a full page ad followed by a full page united ad blaming others for problems. They resolved the issue and resumed working together.

That happened in ‘11 with my medical group and they went nearly to the wire before reaching agreement. I am hoping that will be the situationthis year.

[randita]

The insurance companies made a pact with the devil and they are pretty much stuck with it.

Their eyes got very big when they learned that people were going to be forced to buy their product. What a deal, they thought.

Not working out to be much of a deal so far when the bulk of those enrolling are high risk or non-paying customers.

[lilypad]

Does anyone know more about United? I thought they were endorsed by AARP a big fan of 0 care.

[bert]

-——ALL OF AMERICA-——

Well, most of America is involved with employer provided plans that have been waived from the mandatory requirements for a year. We can assume that practically none of that most has signed up.

That leaves the rest. The rest consists of those who work and are uninsured and those who don’t work and are uninsured. Those who work have a sizeable component of those in the underground economy. They work but do so in cash, off the grid. Then there is a very large group that don’t vote. They are also off the primary grid.

To change, those off the grid must get on the grid. ....... I doubt it. Those tat don’t work will find it impossible to develop the skills, understanding and initiative to go to the trouble absent a gun at their head. Even if sick and perhaps in mortal danger, there might not be the motivation to join up.

When you actually look at the rest, subdivide it into various real components, weigh the various costs, including work required to sign up, compare what the rest actually does and doesn’t do, it seems that large percentages of the rest will simply ignore the falderal and do what is easy....... nothing.

[elpadre]

all from Baltimore??

[bert]

In my view, United is the best of the best. They perform exceptionally well.

Regarding AARP, AARP is the largest of their sales agencies. AARP recognized the excellence in the United capabilities and selected them.

United has other local agents. If you are unable to perform the online selection and registration, you can deal with a local United agent. That agent may or not be an AARP local agent. The non AARP agent considers the AARP agent competition.

In my view, deciding to reject United because of AARP would be short sighted. To the contrary, the relation is a strength. AARP chose United over Humana or BCBS or Aetna or CIGNA because of perceived quality

[kiryandil]

But that low volume is mostly a very bad thing for Obamacare, of course, since the viability of the exchanges depends on a certain size and demographic mix which cannot be attained unless these problems are resolved very quickly. I couldn’t get enrollment numbers from any of the people I spoke with, but I was told that the uptake model that HHS built (using CBO projections) to predict how the exchanges would work made a low-end estimate that just under half a million people would enroll nationwide by October 31st, and that enrollment would then accelerate dramatically between November 15 and December 30th. The October 31 target, which was thought to be modest, now looks essentially impossible to reach, but their bigger worry is that period in November and December.

The clown show ain't gonna work...