Posted on 11/12/2010 9:19:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind
255 million: The number of Americans with existing health insurance coverage.
20 million: The number of Americans without any health coverage at all due to economic circumstances.
375,000: The number of Americans with pre-existing conditions HHS said would apply for coverage in the first year of ObamaCare, one of the main political arguments for its implementation.
8,011: The number that actually did.
To judge by President Obama’s rhetoric, the insurance industry’s victims have been wandering the country like Okies in “The Grapes of Wrath.” Thus ObamaCare gave the Health and Human Services Department the power to design and sell its own insurance policies. The $5 billion program started in July and runs through 2014, when ObamaCare’s broader regulations kick in.
Mr. Obama declared at the time that “uninsured Americans who’ve been locked out of the insurance market because of a pre-existing condition will now be able to enroll in a new national insurance pool where they’ll finally be able to purchase quality, affordable health care—some for the very first time in their lives.”
So far that statement accurately describes a single person in North Dakota. Literally, one person has signed up out of 647,000 state residents. Four people have enrolled in West Virginia. Things are better in Minnesota, where Mr. Obama has rescued 15 out of 5.2 million, and also in Indiana—63 people there. HHS did best among the 24.7 million Texans. Thanks to ObamaCare, 393 of them are now insured.
States had the option of designing their own pre-existing condition insurance with federal dollars in lieu of the HHS plan, and 27 chose to do so. But they haven’t had much more success. Combined federal-state enrollment is merely 8,011 nationwide as of November 1, according to HHS.
This isn’t what HHS promised in July, when it estimated it would be insuring 375,000 people by now, and as many as 400,000 more every year. HHS even warned that it would bill private carriers for any claims if HHS decided that they had cancelled coverage to dump costs on the government. That outcome would certainly be in keeping with Mr. Obama’s caricature of rampant discrimination against the sick.
That comes to a success rate for that prediction of just under 2.2%. The Wall Street Journal points out that the program operates at a loss — which means that consumers who qualify for the program in essence have partial subsidies by entering it. And yet, despite the billions of dollars committed to funding it and the efforts of 27 states to duplicate it, only eight thousand people have bothered to apply for the program.
The Obama administration and its allies in the Nancy Pelosi Congress revamped one-sixth of the American economy, created new federal mandates, and created chaos in system that worked for the vast majority of Americans, just to deal with eight thousand people? Perhaps they should have tested the issue by creating the program separately first and determining whether the demand required a complete overhaul of a health-care system that mainly worked for the rest of us, instead of arrogating to themselves the task of dictating the shape of a market they clearly don’t understand.
bflr
OBAMACARE
I just emailed this off to a bunch of pee’d off people.
This’ll get ‘em even more pee’d off.
LOL THANKS for the post btw.
We are looking at nearly 800,000 people, which is 100 times as many as actually signed up.
Here's the clue ~ the Obamistas and their running dog lackeys knew the correct number but multiplied it by 100X thinking their implementation of a single payer system would cover it all up.
They'd then claim "we saved nearly a million people from such and so"!
Well, they got caught.
So, what's the next number? Wasn't that 40,000,000 uninsured?. If that was overestimated by 100X, then we'd have what, 400,000 uninsured, and doggone if that doesn't look an awful lot like the ADDITIONAL number of rejected uninsured that shows up in the second year!
There may well be NO ONE in this country who doesn't have some form of medical insurance or other medical care available.
My own thought on the matter was that the RICH ~ and not all the RICH, just those in families with $1,000,000 per year net income probably constitute 40 million people! This is, despite the Obama Recession, an exceedingly wealthy nation.
Now that we can see that the proponent's numbers rest on wobbly footings, my proposal seems downright common sensical ~ that we are doing this Obamakkkare nonsense just so we can INSURE THE RICH!
What is missing here is an idea of the premium being charged and what deductibles, if any, apply. If it’s the equivalent of COBRA rates, then you cannot afford to pay it AND pay for your maintenance meds. You are better off self-insuring to cover your meds and doctor visits and pray you don’t need hospitalization.
When cobra ended, there was no conversion policy offered. Under HIPPA, Ins. company had to offer me coverage. The coverage was nowhere near as good, and the cost was $3000 per month.
Forced to go through underwriting. Wound up with $5000 deductible, no Rx for both of us at $800 per month. That increased every year.
Hubby is now on medicare and supplement, and I still have the same policy on just myself. Cost is now $1086 per month total(no Rx coverage).
We have paid insurance premiums ever since I was 18. I really don't think it is fair that the insurance companies get to treat you as if you never had insurance, whenever you have to switch to the private market, through loss of employment or family need.
At our age, we really have to have some sort of Insurance. So we continue to pay out the kazoo. Hubby has been in and out of the hospital several times the last 3 years. I was rated at more risk, but just see the doctor a couple of times per year so far.
Good thing, because after I pay the Insurance, I really can't afford to do anything else.LOL. Everytime government decides to help, it just gets worse.
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