Most Uninsured Americans Ignoring Health Exchange Sites

Gallup ^ | November 8, 2013 | Frank Newport

[grundle]

PRINCETON, NJ -- In the midst of widespread news coverage of problems with the federal health exchange website, relatively few uninsured Americans (18%) -- the primary target population for the exchanges -- have so far attempted to visit an exchange website. The percentage is slightly higher, 22%, among uninsured Americans who say they plan to get insurance through the exchanges.

Have you personally gone to, or attempted to go to, a government health insurance exchange website since the Internet-based health exchanges opened on October 1, or not?

[Secret Agent Man]

Answer: to create a crisis in which they could exploit to get single payer through.

Proof: Obama and company are using the “we can’t just delay this because people’s health issues don’t just wait.”

This is going to be the angle they use to wedge single payer in when obamacare continues - as planned - to fail and fail deliberately spectacularly.

[JediJones]

Not true. There were high risk pools available for them. And as Gallup has shown, there is no “big chunk” of the uninsured eager to sign up. No “big chunk” of any kind is trying to sign up. Just a small portion. And seeing how very few uninsured people actually wanted coverage just underlines the fact that this massive takeover bill was not necessary. A narrower and cheaper measure that negatively affected no one else could’ve been drafted to solve the small problem of the truly uninsurable.

The issue of people getting “free rider” care at emergency rooms won’t be solved by this bill. They still show up at ERs under Romneycare in much higher numbers than before it passed. And those irresponsible people will not even think about the tax until it happens, if the IRS is able to collect it from them at all.

[billhilly]

The dogs are not eating the dog food. That is a famous old saying for failed products

[billhilly]

You make a very good point.

[Kid Shelleen]

How can people without voter IDs sign up for ObamaCare ?

[Kid Shelleen]

Eating your own dog food

[montanajoe]

Actually its these dead beats who created this whole mess.

I'd have no problem with folks going uninsured if our system refused them care when they had an accident, when they had premature babies, when they were on a feeding tube..

If someone dosent want to pay fine but don't expect a damn thing if you need it and have not bought insurance or used real assets to self insure..

[steve86]

There were high risk pools available for them.

Yes, in fact there were but in my state -- and I researched this for a relative -- these were completely unaffordable for an unemployed person and many employed.

And as Gallup has shown, there is no “big chunk” of the uninsured eager to sign up. No “big chunk” of any kind is trying to sign up

I didn't say there was. I said a big chunk of those eager to sign up -- whether those eager to sign up are a crowd or a handful -- is composed of people with pre-existing conditions. And that is true.

Furthermore in Washington State as I think you know, we already have well over 60,000 commercial enrollments -- could be north of 90,000 by now if you count those who haven't paid the first month's premium yet (and why would any significant number have paid the premium this early?). That is getting pretty chunky.

[JediJones]

It’s not my job to bail out people who never bought health insurance in their life until after they had a pre-existing condition. Those people absolutely should pay more for their insurance because unlike the rest of us, they neglected their responsibility to pay into insurance until after they needed the benefits. You have to pay more now to make up for what you avoided paying in when you were healthy.

If you wait until you’re 80 years old to buy life insurance, it’s going to cost more than someone who started paying in at 40.

For people who were under the poverty line, Medicaid was already available, so why was Obamacare needed? Obamacare was created to get more people on the government dole by expanding eligibility for Medicaid and subsidies to people who were already able to afford insurance and to hike up the costs of insurance to make more people feel they need those subsidies.