Posted by Tina
States are scrapping Obamacare exchanges; lefty states are showing the way. Oregon’s exchange reportedly failed to enroll a single person and is being investigated by the FBI. Massachusetts has scrapped it’s dysfunctional Romneycare exchange to merge with the even more dysfunctional federal exchange. United Liberty reports that Maryland had to scrap it’s $125 million exchange and will “replace the state’s online health-insurance exchange with technology from Connecticut’s insurance marketplace.” Good luck with that given the problems people are experiencing overall. PJ Media
reports a Boston Globe story telling of the demise of the Massachusetts exchange: “Massachusetts plans to completely scrap the state’s dysfunctional online health insurance website, deciding that it would be too expensive and time-consuming to fix the overwhelming number of flaws.” … “Instead, officials will buy an off-the-shelf product used by several other states to enroll residents in health plans, while simultaneously preparing to join the federal HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace if that product fails.”
The bad news doesn’t end there. South Carolina’s Post and Courier reports that enrollment numbers are being overstated:
Last week, the federal government reported that more than 118,000 residents in this state enrolled in a policy between Oct. 1 and mid-April. But S.C. Insurance Department Director Ray Farmer said Tuesday the true number of people actually enrolled is much lower.
Of the of the 119,784 individuals in South Carolina who applied and selected a policy on the federal exchange, 85,453 – about 71 percent – paid their first month’s premium by April 30, Farmer said. That was the last possible day to make that first payment. Those who didn’t pay by that date aren’t actually insured, he said.
And in our nations capital…
If the chaos and cost to consumers isn’t shocking enough a check on the latest pulse of federal spending and waste could send voters into emergency voting patterns:
In D.C., the navigator grants were just the tip of the spending iceberg. The federal government handed D.C. officials $133.6 million to build their own exchange and another $631,000 in grants to health centers to help sign people up.
All told, that works out to more than $13,123 per ObamaCare exchange sign-up.
And the DC cash keeps rolling out…
Hawaii was even more expensive. Just 8,592 Hawaiians signed up via its state-built Hawaii Health Connector site, despite $205 million in federal exchange grants and another $1.6 million in health center grants. That translates into $24,080 per enrollee.
Vermont’s program cost $4,440 per sign-up. Even in California, which has signed up 1.4 million, the overhead cost was $776 each.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts and Oregon are both scrapping their exchanges after getting a total of $491 million in federal grants to build them.
All told, the federal government handed out $3.9 billion in grants to 14 states and D.C. to build their exchanges, and another $827 million in grants to states that in the end decided not to build one. It spent another $64 million in grants to health clinics to encourage enrollment in those states. That’s an average $1,850 per enrollee in these 15 markets.
The spending spree goes on.
The Health and Human Services Department also shoveled at least $400 million to build, and then repair, its Healthcare.gov site, which handled enrollments for 36 states. It passed out another $67 million in navigator grants and $144 million in health clinic grants to these states.
On top of this, federal and state government spent roughly $684 million to market ObamaCare. Just between January and March, the federal government spent $52 million on paid media.
The IRS, which plays a key role in ObamaCare since the subsidies and penalties all run through the tax code, also spent $488 million to get ready, plus $67 million for indirect costs that an inspector general investigation said could not be adequately accounted for.
Thank you IBD…we needed that dose of reality….where do we go to get insurance on this progressive “cheap” insurance?
My fellow Americans…are we tired of this ever expanding “epic fail” yet?
We’ll know come November. REPEAL AND REPLACE.
Thank you Post Scripts and IBD.
Hmmm, yes, in Oregon, Oracle has seemingly been paid $248 million for a website that don’t work.
There’s the private sector for you.
I can understand the need to throw out a lot of big scary numbers about the cost after finding out that the uninsured rate has hit its lowest point since 2008.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/05/the-uninsured-rate-keeps-falling-and-falling-survey-shows/
Guess all those Republican claims about how “more people have lost insurance than gained it” really were lies after all.
More good news: The mortality rate in Massachusetts has dropped significantly since the passage of Romney’s 2006 health care law.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/death-rate-fell-in-massachusetts-after-health-care-overhaul.html?_r=0
It’s a damn shame Romney wasn’t allowed to run on the success of his individual mandate, and had to practically disown his signature accomplishment at the behest of his radical-driven party. Man, I’m just having trouble remembering this morning: Did that help him win?
The left, and the Post, can massage the figures all they want but the uninsured still aren’t insured if they tell the truth about the number of people that have actually paid for their insurance and how many lost their insurance before enrolling in obamacare.
The private sector works fine, Libby, when it isn’t constrained and burdened by ridiculous and complex laws that no legal body can explain.
The law is crap.
Lies, manipulation, deception, cheating, and interference by the IRS is what caused Romney to lose the last election. Those things and a stupid decision by a single Supreme Court Judge is what saddled us with Obummercare.
The left has NOTHING it can claim as a success…NOTHING!
The people reject Obamacare and desperately need relief from the radical left’s terrible economic policy.
Dewey apparently lives naked in a tree hollow and dines on dandelions and dirt…whatever subsidy he might take advantage of is funded by air.
Idiocy abounds!
Dewey if you can believe Romney was the worst of two evils there is no reason to explain anything to you. Read the blog…you will find the answers on these pages.
I don’t think anyone could throw his “name in the hat,” nor would I support anyone who believes that throwing his name in a hat is all it takes to aspire to the office of the presidency!
Reagan nailed you when he spoke of liberals: “It’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
Your bias forms from your ignorance. That leaves you with information that may contain an element of truth but fails to give a clear overall picture. Thus corporations are inherently bad and government is to be relied upon on the one hand and despised on the other.
I suggest a step back…and try one subject at a time.
Tina: “The left, and the Post, can massage the figures all they want”
They did not “massage the figures.” They come directly from Gallup, which you have cited yourself many times on this blog.
“but the uninsured still aren’t insured if they tell the truth about the number of people that have actually paid for their insurance and how many lost their insurance before enrolling in obamacare.”
Gallup specifically addresses the point about people paying their premiums and says the numbers could change if many do not pay. But for now, these are the most accurate numbers.
I’m curious, Tina: If, after a few months, another poll is done and finds that the uninsured rate is still lower than it was prior to the ACA, will that in any way change your opinion on the law?
I am just wondering if there is any amount of evidence that will ever change your opinion.
“Three large health insurers including WellPoint Inc. (WLP) and Aetna Inc. (AET) say that a high percentage of their new Obamacare customers are paying their first premiums, undermining a Republican criticism of enrollment in the program.
As many as 90 percent of WellPoint customers have paid their first premium by its due date, according to testimony the company prepared for a congressional hearing today. For Aetna, the payment is in the “low to mid-80 percent range,” the company said in its own testimony. Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in five states including Texas, said that number is at least 83 percent.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-05-06/insurers-say-most-obamacare-customers-paid-first-premiums.html