Obamacare “Enrollment” Explained

U.S. President Barack Obama has been downright giddy in touting the “improved” performance of his socialized medicine law, but a peek under the hood at Obamacare “enrollment” reveals serious problems.

First, despite Obama’s contention to the contrary – choosing a plan does not mean enrolling. According to The Hill, “in Washington and Nevada, only about 50 percent of enrollees have made their first premium payments.”  Those are the only states which have provided estimates, the website notes.

In other words of the 2 million people who have allegedly signed up for Obamacare, as many as half of them aren’t actually enrolled.

“The biggest risk now is people thinking that by picking a plan, that they’re insured, when in fact (the) final step is paying the premium,” Larry Levitt, a senior vice president with the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Hill. “I haven’t seen good numbers on how many people are paying premiums, so that to me is the uncertainty.”

Ya think?

Meanwhile toward the tail end of a Reuters’ piece a pair of doctors discuss the problems associated with distinguishing between who signed up for coverage under the new law – and who actually paid for it.

“It will be difficult for us to actually verify coverage – that’s my concern,” one said.

Meanwhile another noted that a “significant minority” of the new signees would see their elective treatments delayed due to a lack of insurance verification.

“For the protection of patients and us, we’ll have to say, ‘Sorry, you don’t have insurance,'” the doctor said.

Of course this isn’t the real problem associated with the new law.

Despite its best efforts to lure young, healthy people by appealing to their drunken and promiscuous ways, Obamcare has failed to land the very people it needs to maintain the long-term viability of the program without additional tax hikes.

Less than a quarter of all the newly insured Americans fall within Obamacare’s coveted 24-38 year old age range, a number that will doom the law if it becomes a lasting trend.

The administration’s response?

“We think that more and more young people are going to sign up as time goes by,” a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) told reporters on a recent conference call.

Wow … talk about putting the “hope” in “hope and change.”

Anyway, we’d love to ask the Obama administration’s self-proclaimed “Mr. Health Care” about these troubling data points … but unfortunately it looks like that’s no longer an option.