Category: Health Care debate

Hawaii’s health insurance exchange – called “The Connector” – was awarded approximately $200 million in Federal subsidies.  To date, it’s spent about $100 million of those subsidies.

Turns out it’s done just about as well the ObamaCare exchanges in Oregon. Or Maryland.

So, just how many people has The Connector signed up?  Less than 10,000 – 9,217 individuals plus 628 of its own employees and dependents, to be precise.  And it’s raised just a bit over $40,000 in user fees ($40,350).

The bottom line:  The Connector has spent roughly $10,100 of Federal tax money per person it signed up.  Yeah, that’s a “really good deal”.

In fact, it’s so bad that the CEO of Hawaii’s largest insurance provider has called for The Connector to be shut down.  Sound familiar?

But don’t worry.  In that socialist paradise Hawaii, they’ve got this under control.

All they need is an unlimited supply of Federal money, and they’ll have it fixed “real soon now”.

The sooner we rid ourselves of this abomination called ObamaCare, the better.

 

PS:  In case you were wondering, apparently the state-run exchanges in Nevada and Massachusetts are in p!ss-poor shape, too.  Between them, they’ve burned through $260 million in Federal funds  (or will have, when Massachusettes decides what they’re going to do with their exchange) – and neither works worth a damn.  They’re both so bad that both states are currently considering trashing their in-house attempts to create a state-run exchange and using that exemplar of missing functionality, HealthCare.gov, instead.

Well, numbers are out on how well ObamaCare did in one of the most liberal states in the Union – Maryland.  It must have worked well there, right?

Um, not exactly.  The numbers ain’t pretty.

I’ve previously reported that Maryland spent $125M on an ObamaCare exchange that didn’t work worth a damn.  It was so bad, Maryland finally decided to pull the plug on it and use the BD Federal insurance exchange instead.

Well, signup numbers are now out.  In Maryland, 60,000 people signed up for ObamaCare.

However, during the same period 73,000 Maryland residents also lost their existing health insurance due to ObamaCare’s rollout and its new requirements.  That means ObamaCare resulted in 13,000 fewer Maryland residents having health insurance when was forced on the American public.

That bears repeating:  if ObamaCare did not exist, 13,000 more people in Maryland would have health insurance today than they do under ObamaCare.

Help people get insurance?  Sounds more to me like “helping people lose their existing health insurance”.

We really need to sh!tcan this idiocy.  Pronto.

The current Administration has announced that over 7.1 million individuals have “signed up” for ObamaCare under those famous (or, if you prefer, infamous) “healthcare exchanges” it claimed would provide insurance to the uninsured.

Sounds like they were a rousing success, right?  Well, not really.  That number appears to be yet another example of the Administration’s “selective interpretation of reality”.  (Yeah I know – you’re shocked, shocked that this Administration would ever do that.)

First off:  published accounts indicated that most persons signing up for ObamaCare already had health insurance. Best estimates put this fraction at between 2/3 and 3/4  of ObamaCare signups.

Second:  it looks like about 3/4 of signups will have higher premiums under ObamaCare than they did before.  So much for “affordable”.

Third:  there’s a big difference between “signed up” and “insured”.  Until the person signing up pays their first premium, they do not have insurance.  Period.

Best available data indicates that that only 80-85% of signups have actually made that first ObamaCare premium payment.  That’s what Blue Cross/Blue Shield is reporting.  And it tracks with anecdotal reports from other insurers.

Apply that fraction, and it means that instead of 7.1 million insured, you actually have between 5.7 and 6.0 million insured.  And since 3/4  of those were previously insured, well, that translates into roughly 1.4 and 1.5 million people newly insured.

Yeah, really what I’d call a “success”.  To paraphrase Pyrrhus:  “Another such ‘success’ and we shall be ruined.”

We need to cut our losses and walk away from this abysmal failure.  It’s nothing but a bottomless money pit that can’t deliver.

“Six out of ten people without insurance can get insurance for $100 a day or less.”

No, that’s not an April Fool’s Day joke.  That is an actual statement by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about ObamaCare.

Um, Mr. Carney . . . I don’t exactly think paying $36,500 a year (365 x $100) for health insurance is going to fly.  And what do those 4 of 10 who can’t get their ObamaCare “for $100 a day or less” end up paying?

In truth, Carney misspoke – he was, um,   lying    dissembling   BS-ing us   “presenting the theory” that 60% of applicants for ObamaCare can get adequate coverage for $100 a month, but flubbed his  lie  line.  However, the truth isn’t particularly good news.  Per the Cleveland Clinic’s CEO, 75% of those who’ve signed up for ObamaCare have higher premiums after signing up than they did before.

Oh, and did I mention that it looks like about 80% of ObamaCare signups qualify for a subsidy?  So that means that, even with a Federal subsidy, most people are still paying more for their health insurance under ObamaCare than they did previously.

Further:  it turns out that only about 10% of those who’ve signed up for ObamaCare were previously without insurance.  Hey, I thought the whole idea was to cover those millions people who previously didn’t have health insurance – not make it more expensive for everyone else.  I guess I was wrong.

And for good measure, the troubled Federal ObamaCare sign-up site crashed twice yesterday – which was also this year’s sign-up deadline.  But that’s really no surprise.  Hell, even deep-Blue Maryland has thrown in the towel on their $125M ObamaCare sign-up site fiasco.

I’m also shocked, shocked to see that there’s seemingly a bit of, um, “political chicanery” going on regarding ObamaCare signups.  A couple in California recently got a voter registration card from Covered California when they signed up.  That voter registration card was pre-marked to register them as members of the Democratic Party.

The best comment on ObamaCare I’ve seen to date is the title of this CNBC editorial article, which says it all:  Obamacare’s problem: You can’t fix stupid

Actually, that title is wrong.  We can fix this particular bit of idiocy.

Congress can repeal it.

An in today’s   Pathetic Pile of Amazingly Convoluted Asininity    Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA ObamaCare) update:

• Criminal background?  Check.  Lied about it?  Check.  Work as a Nevada ObamaCare Navigator?  Check.
• Wanna enroll at a Mexican Consulate?  No problem.  ObamaCare Navigators will help.
• What’s wrong with this picture:  Employer provides no insurance?  $2,000 fine.  Employer provides insurance that doesn’t cover something required under Obamacare?  $36,500 fine.
• Deep Blue state?  Check.  Runs own ObamaCare exchange?  Check.  Worst in exchange in the country?  Arguably.
  • And under Federal scrutiny to boot.
• But at least Maryland’s exchange signed up some folks by mid-Feb.  Oregon’s spent $160M and didn’t.
  • They’re now on their third director, too.
  • And like Maryland, they’re also under Federal scrutiny.
• But things are going to get better and cheaper, right?  Um, no – probably not.  Is doubling or tripling premiums considered getting “better and cheaper”?
• But remember – it’s all your fault, America.  As Jonn noted yesterday, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) the problem is that you’re just too ignorant to sign up properly.

Well, Reid is correct in one sense.  Around 53% of the voters voted to reelect the Administration who gave us the abomination called ObamaCare.  Maybe stupid really is as stupid does.

The sooner we realize this mishmash is a monumentally stupid idea and is completely unworkable, the better.  We need to give it the “heave ho” posthaste.

I know every time I think of it it makes me want to “heave”.

From a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, 25 Mar 2014 (emphasis added):

“We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period,” HHS official Julie Bataille said. “In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.”

But today the Washington Post says something different (emphasis added):

The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline.

Federal officials confirmed Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension.

Under the new rules, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking a blue box on HealthCare.gov to indicate that they tried to enroll before the deadline. This method will rely on an honor system; the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth.

So, let me get this straight.  At one point yesterday, apparently the Administration felt that no legal authority existed to extend the ObamaCare signup deadline.  But later in the day, such authority apparently had “been found”.

Just where did that authority to extend the ObamaCare signup deadline come from?  Did the authority exist all along, and the Administration was just “confused” yesterday when they said it didn’t exist?  Is the Administration simply “rolling their own” here – regardless of what the law says?  Or is there another plausible explanation?

Further:  the Administration says they’re going to depend on people to tell them truthfully whether they “tried to enroll before the deadline”?  So, in other words:  they’re going to use the “honor system” to determine who gets an extension.

Yeah, that’s going to be really reliable and accurate.

Must be nice to be able to create legal authority where none exists – and to live in a world where no one ever lies.

Sheesh.  GMAFB! (For the uninitiated, that’s, “Give me a freaking break”.  Other translations are possible.)