Over 82% of Exchange "Enrollments" Are Medicaid or Taxpayer Subsidized

From the recent exchange activity report (I can't call it their enrollment report because they do not actually report enrollment numbers)

  • Number of people added to Medicaid or CHIP:  803,077
  • Number of people who have selected** a private plan:  364, 682

The Administration knows, but refuses to tell us what percentage of the 364,682 are eligible for subsidies.   By the unfailing rule of political life, this means the news is bad (ie the percentage subsidized is high).  We do know the percentage of applicants who were determined to be eligible for subsidies:  41%.  Since a lot of people who go through the process are doing it just to see if they get a subsidy, there is good reason to believe that applicants who actually are selecting policies will be subsidized at a higher rate, but certainly no less than 41%.  So using that number we come up with

  • Medicaid or CHIP:  803,077
  • Subsidized private:  153,166 (at least, probably more)
  • Entirely private: 211,516 (probably less)

So, at best, only 18% of the people enrolling** in an exchange are doing so with their own money.  82% or more are doing so partially or entirely with taxpayer money.  Note that these are all people, by definition, who were paying for their own health care before, so the one thing the exchanges are definitely doing is converting independent citizens to government dependents at an 80% rate.

By the way, I am pretty sure the CBO did not score the PPACA as being "deficit neutral" based on more than double as many Medicaid applicants as private applicants and a less than 20% unsubisidized rate.

 

** These are not actual enrollments until the customer pays.  Essentially these are the number of people who have put a plan in their online shopping cart.

 

23 Comments

  1. marque2:

    I think most if not all of them are elligible. The subsidies go to 4x the povertry rate. For my family of four that is $94,500.
    Under 2.5x and you not only get much higher subsidies, but better plans. the 60, 70, 80and 90 plans turn to 63 and 73, 83 and 93. Under 62K and my children would be automatically enrolled in Medicaid (Medi-Cal)

  2. STW:

    My insurance was cancelled and our income means we're not eligible for a subsidy unless we can rent some children. I question why anyone in my situation would go on the government web site for insurance. I can still buy insurance on the private market using systems that are both safe and effective and there's no risk of debris from the train wreck. Am I a failure or a success for Obamacare when I make that purchase?

  3. Elam Bend:

    Do you buy on the individual market?

  4. skhpcola:

    Where is Lartard Gross and the other morons who will plead their case that this vast disruption of our health care industry is worth it, if only we can help just a few "poor" people?

  5. mesaeconoguy:

    Don’t say that!

    This is an unpolluted thread….

  6. skhpcola:

    Lartard seems to have thankfully wandered away from Coyote Blog, no doubt muttering senseless mantras. He's still sporting his retardation with pride at Carpe Diem, though. Adults that disconnected from reality used to be institutionalized...now they get to vote and believe that they are special snowflakes.

  7. Guest:

    No way.

    You mean, when you subsidize poverty, you get more?

    No way.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5FT3IGXtAk

  8. mesaeconoguy:

    No way.

    You mean, when you subsidize poverty, you get more?

    No way.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5FT3IGXtAk

  9. marque2:

    If you look carefully but he private plans are the same as the government ones.

  10. skhpcola:

    Yup, I replied to Lartard in that thread. Even chickens can be trained...Lartard is persistent in his stupidity. He seems proud of it, really. Benji, Lartard, and a few others are in a class by themselves, raging about shit that they have no understanding of. It's pointless to argue with them, but their dedication to being retards is cute.

  11. marque2:

    Buying on the individual market is an illusion. Most states only allow insurance companies who made the exchanges to sell and on their private pages it is the same set of plans with one difference. They can't sell plans with the subsidies yet because of a computer glitch.

  12. marque2:

    The leftists think minimum wage is the answer to gain popularity after the obamacare disaster. With the media reporting falsely everything is up and running Dems are promoting min wage like mad. Therefore Larry is lying about its effects to prop up his leftist friends at Carpe Diem

  13. mesaeconoguy:

    Idiot Domain is an highly confused individual.

  14. mesaeconoguy:

    That’s great insight, and expected behavior.

    Your contributions were very well put, too, sir.

    That was an economic tour de force of theory and effects, intended, unintended, and otherwise.

  15. Scott:

    I'm not so sure that Obama & the Dems would see a higher subsidized rate as a bad thing. In their worldview, saying that an extra 900,000 people are getting government assistance is actually a reason to support Obamacare.

  16. Scott:

    I live near a school. I'll find you some children to rent for half the extra subsidy you get.

  17. Elam Bend:

    Buying on the exchanges and buying from the insurance companies are both buying on the individual market. What I meant was do YOU, personally, buy on the individual market. I do and have for years. The plans are much more expensive now, no matter how you slice it. Either you pay more in premiums or a higher deductible (or really both). Even with subsidies, all but the really poor are paying more for insurance than they would have before ACA. Plus networks are restricted. Thanks to the Presidents impromptu legislating, I don't have to switch plans until next year. When I do, I will likely accept one with a much smaller network to limit expense. I'm lucky in that it includes two world-class hospitals that are within a mile of where I live.

  18. marque2:

    Yes off and on. I do contracting - if the agency provides an option it is usually better because of tax

  19. marque2:

    Treatment of company insurance even though I have to pay full load to the temp agency. Out on my own I get higher deductible plans. Yes I have noticed in 3 years that my costs for a similar plan have roughly doubled. Vs the 5% a year increases everyone complained about which prompted Obamacare in the first place.

  20. Nehemiah:

    "When arguing with fools, don't answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are." Proverbs 26:4 Good advice when it comes to the likes of Gross.

  21. skhpcola:

    I ordinarily admire a person that has conviction and confidence in their views, but in his instance, his views are so...wrong that I frequently think that he has to be trolling us. Grown-ups that willfully ignorant and/or stupid should be in constant and agonizing pain. Not that I would wish that on him, but he probably touches hot stoves and licks frozen flagpoles every day.