Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Obamacare - the hidden details


Warren Meyer has done an excellent job of breaking down the raw data on Obamacare enrollments, to reveal that it's costing us - the taxpayers of America - a whole lot more than its proponents want us to know.

As you can see, of the nearly 3.7 million people who have selected a private plan or been put in Medicaid or CHIP, fully 88% are on the government dole (subsidized or full Medicare).

The interesting new data is on the plan selection breakdown between subsidized and un-subsidized.   This leads to an interesting finding that is a bit non-obvious from the report itself because the data is spread all over the report.  But lets look at conversion of applicants to plan selection based on whether folks are subsidized or subsidized.

For the 2,383,131 applicants who find they are no going to be subsidized, only 436,603 have selected a plan, for a 18% conversion rate

For the 2,756,667 applicants who find they will get supported by the taxpayer, 1,646,237 selected a plan, far a 60% conversion rate.

In essence, applicants are more than 3 times more likely to sign up if they are getting taxpayer money.  The exchanges are not selling health care, they are selling subsidies.  People sign up, check to see if they have money coming, and go away if they don't and stay if they do.

There's more at the link, including a diagram showing the progress of visitors to the Obamacare Web site as they move through the application process.  Bold underlined text above is my emphasis.

I understand it was intended for many more young and financially self-sufficient people to enroll in Obamacare, thereby subsidizing those who couldn't afford the premiums.  Gee, that's working well, isn't it?

Peter

5 comments:

Stuart Garfath. Sydney, new South Wales. Australia said...

Hang on.
Ă“bamaCare'.
What?.
Is this term for a medical umbrella just slang, or a real name?.
If it's slang, then good, questions are asked each time the term is used.
If it's a Governmental term applied to an initiave of that Government, then, there is a problem.
I'm not an American.
I'm Australian, but, if this word, ObamaCare, is legit, you Yanks, (you fabulously, bloody disgracefully, stunningly - awefully brave FRIENDS, (NEVER! believe differently!),have a small problem.
Him.
Your President.
The silence here in Australia about him is more than deafening, it is absolute.
We know NOTHING about what is going on in America, nothing.
And that's not good.
And some few of us here in Australia are concerned.
A few, and that's the problem here.
Blissful ignorance.
.....

Shrimp said...

Stuart--
The awful law that was passed so that we could see what was in it is actually called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (also a misnomer, because nothing about it has been or will be affordable!) but was given the moniker Obamacare (or ObummerCare if that floats your boat) by the Republicans because they wanted to hang this albatross around his neck and ensure that history never forgets whose mistake this was.

Anonymous said...

Stuart, to add to what Shrimp said, for a while the President and the other Democrat Party folks used the ObamaCare name too, until it became obvious what a debacle, disaster, stinking mess, what-have-you the program (and web site) is. Now they are back to calling it the ACA.

And you are right - we've got a mess on our hands that I wouldn't wish on most of my worst enemies.

LittleRed1

sdharms said...

all is proceeding according to plan.

Rolf said...

He KNEW it would fail, that was the plan. But the Democrat pols thought it would last long enough that they could (a) get a lot of folks "addicted" to it's subsidies, so it was "untouchable," and (b) it would last long enough that a Republican would be visible enough that it could be blamed on them, to pave the way for a total take-over.
And Stuart, you are right: Obama is the enemy of America. He hates everything that is independent, free, and able to ignore him. In the end, it's all about him, his power, and I'm sorry the world has to suffer through his reign of error with us. I do not think our history books will be kind to him. My greatest fear is that his election really is a reflection of a change in the American spirit; I really, RALLY hope it isn't.