Now that Obama has taken a victory lap and popped the champagne cork over hitting the ObamaCare enrollment goal, it looks as if it might be time to put the cork back in the bottle.Results of a RAND Corporation study suggest that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7.1 million, as claimed by Obama – had paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by the Monday night deadline. The study also indicates that only one-third of exchange sign-ups were previously uninsured.Yes, millions of enrollees were previously insured, including those who lost coverage when their existing policies were cancelled because they didn’t meet ObamaCare’s minimum requirements.
Still, Obama claimed that “millions of people who have health insurance would not have it”‘ without ObamaCare. The numbers simply do not support that claim.Moreover, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a shot at Republicans “who have based their entire political agenda on repealing it.” Obama also thanked Democrats, who passed the “Affordable” Care Act without a single Republican vote.
“‘We could not have done it without them, and they should be proud of what they’ve done.”Yeah, they’re proud as punch, Mr. President. We’ll see how proud they are as they run away from ObamaCare as fast as they can during this year’s campaign season.By the way, in addition to subtracting the number of those who have applied for ObamaCare but not paid for it from the 7.1 million number the White House touts, there are Medicaid adjustments to be made to Obama’s fuzzy math as well.
- The White House counts Medicaid enrollees in its numbers. Through December, between 1 and 2 million ObamaCare enrollees actually signed up for Medicaid vs. health insurance.
- Moreover, when states report Medicaid enrollment data to the federal government, they don’t break down the number between the “gained Medicaid because of Obamacare” population and the “would have gotten Medicaid anyway” group.
