Posted on 08/13/2014 5:09:43 PM PDT by Kaslin
And they should know because they're the ones not collecting the premiums.
Much of the left has been trying its best to push the notion that "ObamaCare is working," largely based on the announced enrollment total of anywhere from 8 million to 10 million that has come out of the White House. Since this was more than the 7 million they originally said they needed to make the system viable, viola . . . success!
One problem: They counted everyone who enrolled, without regard to whether enrollees ever paid a premium. If you don't pay the premium, you're not insured and you're not part of the system. Thus, your enrollment is meaningless and there's no serious measure that can count you. So how is this phase of the implementation going?
Not well, if the experience of Aetna - one of the largest insurers participating in the system - is any indication. Investors Business Daily reports:
The nation's third-largest health insurer had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20, a spokesman confirmed to IBD. At the end of June, it had fewer than 600,000 paying customers. Aetna expects that to fall to "just over 500,000" by the end of the year.
That would leave Aetna's paid enrollment down as much as 30% from that May sign-up tally.
"I think we will see some attrition ... We're already seeing it. And we expect that to continue through the end of the year," CEO Mark Bertolini said in a July 29 conference call.
It's not clear how representative Aetna's experience is of broader exchange trends, or whether its projection may be too conservative. (If it were representative, a similar 30% decline would drop ObamaCare enrollment to 6 million or less.)
Still, as one of ObamaCare's largest players, participating in exchanges in 16 states plus D.C., Aetna's experience provides a pretty good window into what is happening across the country, and there are other indications that enrollment has turned down.
Cigna (NYSE:CI) said that it expects its individual market customers, including more than 100,000 in the exchanges, to "move from 300,000 down to 280,000 in that range," Cigna CEO David Cordani said in a conference call.
Other major insurers danced around questions about attrition on recent earnings conference calls, but none denied that it was occurring.
Granted, you can't assume that Aetna's level of attrition will prove to be what happens across the board. The industry overall could do better. Or it could do worse.
Assuming Aetna's experience is not way out of line with what other insurers experience, where does ObamaCare end up if it's back down to only 6 million enrollees, especially given the likely problem of adverse selection that sees those insured through ObamaCare policies skew sicker and older than the population in general?
Also keep in mind that this only measures the attrition so far. For those who didn't have health insurance before because they couldn't afford it, how many are likely to drop off six, nine or 12 months after signing up because they thought they could handle the premiums, but found they couldn't? Especially after they go up again, which appears to be a near certainty?
ObamaCare is only "working" if you base that on phony and irrelevant numbers like the ones the White House has been pushing. The real facts suggest what we've always suspected: ObamaCare is a disaster.
But, but, but......we was told it would be free! what do you mean we have to pay?
As I have posted before, it will be interesting to see how the IRS navigates through this mess when 2014 taxes come due. How can they possibly keep track of this mess.
Now we know why Barry orchestrated the illegal alien invasion.. To keep the Obamacare enlistments from tanking! LOL!
It’s really fun to consider that most of Obamacare hasn’t even been implemented yet. It’s only going to get “better”.
Well they did hire an additional 15,000 attorneys, agents, and accountants.....
FOX News reported that virtually anybody can be exempted from penalties if you don’t have health insurance. The list of excuses includes having received a cut off notice from a utility company and other hardships. If you are healthy you would have to be an idiot to pay the high monthly premiums for a policy with sky high deductibles. Even the 0bama voters are not that stupid. Save the money and pay cash for routine medical expenses and buy insurance after you go to the hospital for serious medical problems.
The numbers were higher because they lumped all the new expanded ‘free’ Medicaid people into insurance numbers.
Touting the number of Obamacare enrollees to prove the success of the program was never a good metric. When you give something away or heavily subsidize it, and people take what you’re giving them, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good system. The Soviet Union gave out loaves of bread to 200 million people. That doesn’t mean their farm programs were better than what the private sector could do.
So what do the collaborators at Aetna want?
As the intent was to wipe out these companies, the plan is proceeding perrrrrrectly...
Unexpected! /s
I sure hope no one is implying that this administration might have lied to us! After all, the provided government information did come straight from the Ministry of Truth!
“They counted everyone who enrolled, without regard to whether enrollees ever paid a premium. If you don’t pay the premium, you’re not insured and you’re not part of the system. Thus, your enrollment is meaningless...”
::::::::::
One of the biggest of the Obamacare LIES. Criminals and thugs stealing from America....the beat goes on.
Bump
The big question. Will Obama delay the employer mandate another year so it won’t be a factor in the 2014 elections? If he doesn’t, voters covered by employer plans will be going to the polls faced with huge premium and copay increases. If he is going to push out the full implementation of Obamacare on employer plans it is almost too late.
Perhaps the Dems have decided it is better to allow insurance companies to announce the substantial rate increases and then spend October vilifying the evil insurance companies and promising to reign them in if reelected.
The second big question is what is the GOP’s real message on Obamacare (or any other issue for that matter). It appears they don’t plan to put forward a positive agenda such as the 1994 Contract for America. I hate the fact it looks like I’m going to the polls one more year knowing what I’m voting against but not what I’m voting for, unless of course they are the same thing as was the case in 2012.
Wait!...You mean we’re not being told the truth!
Official understatement of the Obama presidency.
Documentation File for the 2014 Impeachment of B. Hussein Obama, aka “Barry Soetoro” a former Foreign Student from Indonesia, and still a legal Citizen of the Sovereign Nation of Indonesia.
Soon to come: a database checking party enrollment against applications for exemptions.
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