by JOHN SEXTON
February 10, 2014
The White House pulled out all the stops last week to insure reporting on CBO estimates of how Obamacare would create a disincentive to work were strictly accurate. They seem to have another standard entirely when it comes to putting out Obamacare enrollment numbers.
Dick Durbin
(Photo courtesy dyn.politico.com)
Senator Dick Durbin made an absurd claim in defense of Obamacare Sunday onFace the Nation. Durbin told host Bob Schieffer, “Bob, let’s look at the bottom line. The bottom line is this. Ten million Americans have health insurance today who would not have had it without the Affordable Care Act — 10 million.”
As we pointed out here Friday, it’s looking like 20 percent of Obamacare’s “enrollment” numbers need to be discounted. That’s the percentage that are going to see their plans cancelled for lack of payment. Health insurance industry expert Bob Laszewski says the real number enrolled in Qualified Health Plans (i.e. not Medicaid) is around 2.5 million.
In addition, the majority of those enrollees are replacing policies that were cancelled under Obamacare’s grandfathering rules. If you put the percentage of those who were previously uninsured at 25 percent, then we’re talking about 625,000 people who have private insurance for the first time thanks to Obamacare.
The other half of Durbin’s bogus figure comes from Medicaid enrollment. Those figures have been reported as exceeding 6 million, but they include many who had previously been judged eligible for the program. Analysts at Avalere suggested the real number is under 2 million.
Writing at the Washington Post, Glenn Kessler highlights an alternative analysiswhich puts the total at 3.7 million.