The Obama administration claims that almost seven million people will have signed up for a health care plan through the Obamacare exchanges by the end of the open enrollment period … whenever that might be. The deadline, which officially came yesterday, was extended last week to mid-April, but with the dozens of tweaks the administration has unilaterally made to the law, the specific drop-dead date is really anyone’s guess, especially since the individual mandate has now lost the last of its teeth.
The breakdown of that seven million number is dubious at best, and entirely deceitful by most accounts. The most transparent administration ever is failing to provide even the most basic information about who is enrolling and whether or not they’re actually paying the bill.
Seven million was the original target set by the Congressional Budget Office for enrollment in taxpayer-subsidized private health insurance through new online markets created under President Obama’s signature legislation.
That was scaled back to 6 million after the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov last fall. Several state-run websites also had crippling problems.
I think it’s pretty amazing that we’ve hit the exact number the Obama administration had been hoping for, given the well-documented problems regarding the original rollout. Couple that with the five-plus million people who have lost their existing coverage, and you have the recipe for numbers that are about as transparent as a brick wall.
Luckily, the media have been at the ready to smooth things over. Just repeat the number over and over again, and people will start to believe it. Never mind that many included in the seven million have re-upped for Medicaid, many are simply replacing plans they lost, and many haven’t even paid the bill to begin the coverage.
It’s still early in the day. It may be possible that we’ll get an “April Fool’s” tweet from the White House explaining that Obamacare was one big joke but only the bureaucrats are laughing.
Cross-posted at YouDecidePolitics.
