The ObamaCare sign-up scam

So here’s where we’re at: 364,682 people had signed up for private plans by November 30, which is about 842,000 short of the administration’s end-of-November projection. Information about tens of thousands of those 364,682 sign-ups has either been transmitted inaccurately or not at all to insurers. And so far only a small fraction of the sign-ups which have been correctly transferred to insurers have actually completed the process and paid. (The administration also says that another 803,077 people have enrolled in Medicaid.)

All of which means that we don’t know how many people have actually enrolled yet. But the true number is virtually certain to be significantly lower than the administration’s sign-up data suggests, and woefully short of the administration’s stated goal. Is there any real chance that the exchanges enroll 7 million people in private coverage by the end of March? Probably not.

And that is presumably why the administration is now downplaying the 7 million goal. Instead they are saying that what really matters is not the topline enrollment figure, but the demographic mix of the various plans and risk pools created by the exchanges—how many young and health people are paying into the system relative to the older, sicker population that the young healthies are intended to balance out.