HHS won't disclose the enrollment data that really matter.
Most of Washington seems to have bought the White House claim that the 36 federal exchanges are finally working, and glory, glory, hallelujah. But if that's really true, then what explains the ongoing secrecy and evasion?
On
Wednesday the Health and Human Services Department continued its
Victorian-era strip tease and allowed a glimpse into the Affordable Care
Act's "enrollment" for November. Out of respect for a free press,
reporters ought to boycott these releases because they're so selective
that they reveal little about real enrollment. But we'll try to parse
the data as best we can without the White House high gloss.
A
charitable reading suggests that ObamaCare's net enrollment stands at
about negative four million. That's the estimated four million to five
and a half million people who had their individual health plans
liquidated as ObamaCare-noncompliant—offset by the 364,682 who have
signed up for a plan on a state or federal exchange and the 803,077 who
have been found eligible to receive Medicaid.
HHS is boasting of enrollment for November
that was four times as high as October, yet 62% of the total was in the
state exchanges, some of which are marginally less prone to crashing
than the federal version. Then again, 41 states posted sign-ups only in
the three or four figures, including eight states that run their own
exchanges. Oregon managed to scrape up 44 people. Among the 137,204
federal sign-ups, no state is reaching the critical mass necessary for
stable insurance prices.
The larger
problem is that none of these represent true enrollments. HHS is
reporting how many people "selected" a plan on the exchange, not how
many people have actually enrolled in a plan with an insurance company
by paying the first month's premium, which is how the private insurance
industry defines enrollment. HHS has made up its own standard.
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