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Uninsured Ingrates Refusing to Sign Up!

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Oh no. This isn’t working out how we planned.

The five-year plan called for the uninsured to gratefully flock to the health care exchanges and pick up their Obamacare! But instead people are just shopping for better deals.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Early signals suggest the majority of the 2.2 million people who sought to enroll in private insurance through new marketplaces through Dec. 28 were previously covered elsewhere, raising questions about how swiftly this part of the health overhaul will be able to make a significant dent in the number of uninsured.

Only 11% of consumers who bought new coverage under the law were previously uninsured, according to a McKinsey & Co. survey of consumers thought to be eligible for the health-law marketplaces.

A big problem, it seems, is that the Affordable Care Act isn’t all that affordable:

One reason for people declining to purchase plans was affordability. That was cited by 52% of those who had shopped for a new plan but not purchased one in McKinsey’s most recent sampling, performed in January.

Some of those shopping for plans are in the market because their employers canceled their insurance and dumped them into Obamacare.

Well, perhaps more people will start signing up once those fines – I’m sorry, taxes – start kicking in. Because remember, the ballast for Obamacare isn’t really affordability. It’s coercion.

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60 Responses to Uninsured Ingrates Refusing to Sign Up!

  2. Gradually people realize that even if you pay cash, say $250, for a doc appt–it takes a lot of those to reach the $5,000 deductible–meaning the insurance is paying for nothing, but the premium bills come like clockwork.

  3. I don’t know if this is a valid question, but I also wonder if any of those who have signed up for Medicaid were previously insured. I haven’t seen anything on this, but I thought I saw that qualification for Medicaid was being accepted sort of on ‘scout’s honor’, that claims were not going to be closely examined.

    • I saw somewhere some comments that if you didn’t fit into the “subsidy slots” that you were automatically enrolled in Medicaid whether you want to be or not.

      In truth, I think the input to the system and the requirements are so vague and flexible that even the most basic data is suspect.

      Good luck to people who try and get treatment with this insurance.

  4. A couple of stories from real life.

    In my city the local public hospital offered what they called an “Advantage” program for the uninsured. It wasn’t insurance by the feds definition, but it provided a needed service/product to the poor and uninsured. It cost participants nothing in premiums, however doctor’s visits were $20, scripts $5, and surgeries $100. Not a bad program when you really think about it. Now that NobamaCare is coming on line this hospital is no longer offering this program as a “primary” program, but rather as a supplement. Patients lost their coverage as of 12/31/13, and if they want the extra coverage they have to apply for Medicaid, or have private insurance.

    I have two good friends that have different stories but are in the same boat. One is 20, female, healthy, and in college. She looked at Healthcare.gov, and realized that she could not in any way afford the cost of the insurance, even with the assistance of the feds. Her school does not offer reasonably priced insurance, so now she is applying for Medicaid. She doesn’t need to be covered as she very rarely gets sick. She is one of those trying to better herself with an education, and lives on less than $700 p/mo, and feels that it is insane that she has to buy something she doesn’t need.

    Story two. Another friend who is female, 40, and has beaten several bouts with cancer does need insurance. However, she is also in college, seeking to better her opportunities. She was on the Advantage plan for the past several years, and was very happy with her coverage and the hospital. Now they have told her that she is no longer covered under their program, and needs Medicaid. She applied last year, and has still not received word as to whether she will be covered. She is due for a cancer screening follow-up in the next few months, but doesn’t know if it will be covered by anyone or if she will be having to pay out of pocket.

    Nobamacare is more than a logistical nightmare, it is hurting young people when they can least afford it. And it may end up killing those who have medical problems because no one knows what the heck is going to happen next, or who and when they will be covered.

    • I received an e-mail from some leftist group telling me that as I was a single payer supporter (!), I should take heart that single payer is on the way. I can’t repeat how I replied here. But you’re right: the meme is out there.

    • Congress should not be a problem once the October cancellations start going out.

      The problem is 2016. An honest-to-God, unapologetic, conservative-and-proud-of-it, candidate, MUST be the nominee for the GOP. One more wishy-washy case of “electability” and it’s over.

      McCain was supposed to be the most “electable.” So was Romney. How’d that work out?

      This country needs a hard right turn. Immediately. Anything less, and, well, last American left, turn off the lights, it was grand.

      • If you don’t consider electability–you get a McGovern or Dukakis. I know–the “other” party–but you get where I am going. Big NYT piece on Romney today–let it go awreddy.

      • Repost from this morning from Star:

        we need to elect a Rep president, which means 1) ridiculing and undermining the Dems, 2) backing whatever Rep surfaces, pure or not, and 3) not cutting off our noses to spite our faces by sitting out the election if a candidate is not as pure as we would like. WIN THEN FIGHT.

      • Repost this morning from me:

        I cannot fathom refusing to vote in a general election just because one’s party’s candidate doesn’t embrace everything one wants. There have been countless times I’ve voted for Republican candidates with whom I’ve disagreed over both minor and major issues.

      • Spot on, Darkangel. Enough of the “most electable” RINOs. That’s how we’re going to get another Bush for the Republican nominee. Like Mark Levin has said many times, it is time for a new Republican party. A party that represents We The People and not the Chamber of Crony Capitalism. However, we can’t wait until 2016 to act. The time is now. The primaries coming up are where we can make the most effective change. Vote for the primary opponent of all RINO incumbents. I plan on doing just that with Lamar Smith and John Cornyn. If these two can be prevented from getting at least 50% of the primary vote, we’ll have a runoff election where the top two candidates vie for the nomination. That is how Texas was able to elect Ted Cruz as Senator over the sitting Lt. Governor Dewhurst. It’s not easy to dislodge a RINO incumbent, but it can be done if enough people really want to return this country to the roots of our Constitution.

        • I like that strategy, but I have one problem with it. If the incumbent RINO wins, will people who voted for her or his opponent in the primary vote for the GOP in the general election?

          • Some will and some won’t. Since I got involved in politics I’ve found that Republicans of the libertarian persuasion won’t vote for the RINO under any circumstances.

          • They need their heads examined if they think that’s not helping elect more and more Progs, a/k/a Commies. As Star says, win the election and then fight.

      • “Congress should not be a problem once the October cancellations start going out.”

        If things are not going well I think Obama will direct the insurance companies to not send out notices until after the election.

  6. You really think Obama cares? This only screws over insurance companies while it actually helps government bring in more tax money. It is all part of the plan. In the coming years, insurance companies will jack their rates up even higher to make up the difference which will cause even more healthy people to drop out and take the tax penalty instead. Soon, insurance companies will be dropping out of the market altogether while low-information voters will be screaming for the government to “do something”. And voila! Single payer is here!

  7. This miserable program was sold by a cadre of liars as a compassionate way for the “uninsured” to finally be able to get health insurance. The government was going to see that “30 million” of these uninsured got the same kind of quality health care as the more fortunate in the US.
    The “government” was going to subsidize those who qualified, and contraception was going to be “free”.

    Of course, the young and naive bought it; it’s so compassionate to help the least of us. They were told, over and over, that the nasty Repubs were evil people who didn’t care about the disadvantaged, who wanted to push Grandma over a cliff instead of offering a kindly hand of help.
    Now the truth is exposed; the young and naive found out they are the “government” and nothing is “free”.

  8. If a person is enrolled in one state exchange program and goes to another state and needs medical attention would they be covered by their state’s exchange or the exchange where they are at?

    • I assume it’s like the Advantage HMOs–some only work in the state you’re in. If you get a United plan in a state exchange, does it work in another state with United? Thus the fuss over selling ins acr state lines to make it truly portable.

    • Many of the exchange programs are in-network only. Any medical bills outside your network would be your responsibility. If your exchange includes out of network coverage, then it should pay for your out of network care.

      There was an article a few months back about a cancer patient in San Diego. Because of Obamacare, she won’t be able to go to her doctors at Stanford University or receive cancer treatment in TX because of the out of network exclusions.

  9. “The five-year plan called for the uninsured to gratefully flock to the health care exchanges and pick up their Obamacare!”
    Yikes! What other dictator once identified their government takeover as a “five-year plan”?

    Lots of people are employing the “Come and Take It” philosophy with this liberty stealing health insurance scam. There are no criminal penalties in this quasi law for refusing to purchase health insurance. The worst the Leviathan can do to someone is to garnish their tax refund for the $95 penalty. If the person refusing to buy health insurance doesn’t qualify for a tax refund, the Leviathan has no legal authority to forcibly collect the penalty…

    • : There are no criminal penalties in this quasi law for refusing to purchase health insurance. The worst the Leviathan can do to someone is to garnish their tax refund for the $95 penalty. If the person refusing to buy health insurance doesn’t qualify for a tax refund, the Leviathan has no legal authority to forcibly collect the penalty…”

      You have a problem with this? Would you prefer people who refuse to sign up be charged with a crime?

        • Losing money is punishment, especially to those who can’t afford to join and make too much to qualify for subsidies.

          Bah! What a charley-foxtrot this whole thing is!

        • Interesting that we’re discussing “enforcements”;
          taking into account that some courts have decided that it was a violation of the civil rights of a gay couple for a baker to refuse to bake their wedding cake and has issued an order that the business bake that cake; could the courts force a doctor or hospital to provide care for someone who’s not in their “network” of approved health care providers?
          Not just provide care, but to accept whatever the insurer is willing to pay for the insurees treatments.

          We’re treading in dangerous waters here, for sure.

          • The baker has every rite to refuse to make a cake for a gay couple given their religious beliefs.
            So did the couple in New Mexico that photograph weddings to refuse to photo a gay wedding.
            The gays should go to a gay baker, or photographer and leave the ones that have religious beliefs against such abominations alone.
            Evidently, the LGBT’s feel it necessary to transform America into an area that we Christians are opposed to using the liberal courts.
            It is reprehensible to say the least.

  11. […] Yet another dirty little Obamacare secret:  For the most part, Obamacare isn’t providing insurance for the uninsured.  Instead, it’s forcing the previously insured to buy more expensive insurance than they already had, along with painfully higher deductibles than they were previously paying.  Yes, there are definitely people with pre-existing conditions who are benefiting, but they’re such a small part of the overall picture that there had to have been a better, less disruptive, cheaper way to take care of their insurance needs. […]