EXCLUSIVE: Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the website's first week, out

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Obamacare's main signup engine attracted just 6,200 new customers on its launch day and 51,000 after the first week
At the same rate, the 6-month open enrollment period would sign up just 2 million Americans, including 14 states and D.C., which have their own insurance exchanges
The Congressional Budget Office says Obamacare needs at least 7 million customers to stay afloat financially
Numerous Obama administration officials have denied seeing any enrollment figures at all
MailOnline's sources are two Health and Human Services workers who have access to the data as it's crunched
Texas congressman says anemic national enrollment numbers are 'roughly the population of a small town in my district'


I wonder how accurate these numbers are...?

reply to post by Rulkiewicz


So, if not enough people sign up (at least 7 million) does it cease to exist?

So.... There's exactly 51,000 morons who would go through with giving the gooberment all there information for them to use how they see fit... That's not a bad number....

I hope the lack of enrollment, crushes Obamamamacare!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


No, it means the government will reap in millions of dollars by fining those Amerikan citizens who didn't obey the government and sign up.

reply to post by jjkenobi


Yeah but is the penalty high enough to cover the lack of members? I would think that would be profit after the 7 million (at least) were paying into this corrupt system!

Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Rulkiewicz

 

So, if not enough people sign up (at least 7 million) does it cease to exist?

Maybe the tax/penalty from those who hadn't signed up will make up for the difference...?

Rulkiewicz

Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Rulkiewicz

 

So, if not enough people sign up (at least 7 million) does it cease to exist?

Maybe the tax/penalty from those who hadn't signed up will make up for the difference...?

Yeah that is what I was talking about above....I would assume since the penalty is much less than the actual cost of the plan, that if there weren't at least 7 million members it wouldn't have enough money to stay afloat??

Chrisfishenstein

So, if not enough people sign up (at least 7 million) does it cease to exist?

For an insurance plan to work, the insurer needs a mix of people to sign up. They need healthy people who pay their premiums and reap little benefit. This creates a profitable premium payment for them which helps defray the cost of the sick insured people who go to lots of doctors, have lots of procedures and wind up having the bulk of their medical paid for by the insurance company.

The current theory with the obamacare insurance plans is that the only people willing to suffer through the sign up process are those that need that insurance to cover their medical expenses. The only people willing to do so would be the folks with prior conditions, the very poor etc.

So, if you assume that, thus far, the only people signing up are the folks who will pay very little, thanks to the subsidies, and go for lots of treatments or doctor visits, the insurance companies will be spending more money on those people than the premiums bring in and they won't have the healthy, so called wealthy, who pay larger premiums and don't see too many doctors.

In other words, if this keeps up, Obamacare will destroy the insurance companies.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


I guess just doing the math in my head, using generic numbers...If the penalty is 10X less than the plan and they had nobody sign up for it....They would now need 70 million people paying the penalty....For the same amount of money for the program to stay afloat....That is what I am talking about....Is it possible that there isn't enough money there, once kicked off, that it ceases to exist??

reply to post by Crakeur


Yes it will destroy the insurance companies, but if the government is paying the premiums for their patients now, how would they come up with the money if the funding isn't there?

Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

I guess just doing the math in my head, using generic numbers...If the penalty is 10X less than the plan and they had nobody sign up for it....They would now need 70 million people paying the penalty....For the same amount of money for the program to stay afloat....That is what I am talking about....Is it possible that there isn't enough money there, once kicked off, that it ceases to exist??

According to this link:

money.cnn.com...

There are an awful lot of people eligible for obamacare.

Crakeur

Chrisfishenstein

So, if not enough people sign up (at least 7 million) does it cease to exist?

In other words, if this keeps up, Obamacare will destroy the insurance companies.

Which, correct me if I'm wrong, would be a damn good thing. It would almost explain all those damn monies that has been funnelled into ad campaigns trying to bring down ACA, paying random people to spread complete nonsense about it...

Who'd a thunk?

I'm really interested into seeing how this plays out.

I'm really wondering if it's a blessing in disguise. If in a years time they have some "middle class woman" complaining about how ACA bankrupted her. You know, she can't afford a third Mercedez for her daughter to drive on weekends to the beach club now... Poor lady.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


the premiums won't cover the medical costs for someone going through chemotherapy or some other catastrophic type medical issue.

Insurance is a gamble. You are betting the insurance company that you will need them to cover medical expenses, death benefits, fire damage etc. They are taking those bets because the odds are that you won't need what you think you will. This is why the insurance companies wouldn't take people with previously diagnosed ailments. They knew it was a losing bet for them. They take the premiums from everyone and the total premiums cover the average medical costs and the leftover is used to cover the rare cases where medical expenses exceed the norm.


Now, this plan is reversed. The insurance companies are forced to take people who will definitely have higher benefit payments and they aren't pulling in the low risk people so they will be doling out more than they are bringing in.


Recipe for disaster, made worse because the 3 years and hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on a site that doesn't work is resulting in people not signing up right away.

Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Crakeur

 

Yes it will destroy the insurance companies, but if the government is paying the premiums for their patients now, how would they come up with the money if the funding isn't there?

The one source I found earlier in a thread (wish I could find it again) said they offset costs by upping taxes on companies that profit from the trade, med health suppliers, drug companies, etc.

You know, the one's that should pay out.

But it's probably BS. I should believe all the insurance companies, drug companies, and politicians they bought off, cause they told me it would be bad for the average citizen. Yup!

reply to post by Crakeur

Recipe for disaster, made worse because the 3 years and hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on a site that doesn't work is resulting in people not signing up right away.

A friend of mine in insurance, said that if you have the money (we are talking 5 mil+) and connections, you can see a 50% return on your money.

The money they scoop up isn't held in a coffer to pay out their subscribers when they need it, they funnel it into other funds, investments, projects, whatever...

Doesn't seem like insurance at all, seems like a scheme.

reply to post by Crakeur


Isn't this move on the same track as the housing bubble, no doc loans deal that crashed the housing market a few years ago?

Didn't Congress help facilitate that disaster as well?

reply to post by boncho


here's how the middle class will fare.
Anyone who isn't covered thru work will get crushed. My wife was laid off a couple of weeks ago and, since we're going to be insured thanks to Cobra, I figured I'd look into the rates via Obamacare. The affordable care available to me ranges from relatively inexpensive, under a grand, for a family of four, with a deductible that is high enough to ensure that I will never reach a point where the insurance company starts paying for costs or I can go with an annual premium that will nail me for about $30k with a deductible that will still result in paying for a plan that will never result in me receiving any medical insurance assistance with the bills. It should also be noted that, from what I've read, once those insane deductibles are met, the insurance companies don't always pay for all expenses. Turns out they pay for a portion which, presumably, is based on some national average for the care being covered. Well, in NYC, where I live, the cost of everything is several times more than it is topeka so I'm going to be screwed even further.


It would be cheaper for me to self-insure, pay the penalty for the 4 people and I'd still have money left over for a couple of vacations.


What is deemed middle class in most places is a survival struggle here but that isn't taken into consideration so a guy who makes $150k here, after taxes, housing, utilities, food, clothing etc, is lucky to have $30,000 left over and that will now barely cover medical costs.


This plan is either designed to destroy everyone or it was, as is often the case, just another piece of unresearched, pointless government stupidity.

Just to be fair here..this seems a bad way to look at this? I'm no friend in even a passing way of the ACA ..yet still?

Is the week of Government shutdown, broken websites, broken call centers, broken media (yup.. them too) the best week to look into this and really take the participation number as a clean sample?

I'm waiting for week #2 or the soonest we have 1 full week where the signup system was at least functioning for everyone. Then we'll know how many actually wanted to sign up vs. the countless totals now who went, saw, and threw their hands up in total frustration?

reply to post by boncho


they pool the premiums and invest them so that they can earn more money to cover the outlays and, if they do it right, they make enough with the premiums and investments that there's still profits left over. This is why, with some types of insurance, the insured might get back some money from the pooled investments.

sulaw
So.... There's exactly 51,000 morons who would go through with giving the gooberment all there information for them to use how they see fit... That's not a bad number....

I hope the lack of enrollment, crushes Obamamamacare!

Because "giving THEIR information" is really a factor here...

But if you buy a mobile phone plan (or a car, or get a store credit card)..you are totally fine giving away all the information, right?