Brace Yourselves: Obamacare Enrollment Numbers Released

Oh, boy.

The government released Obamacare enrollment numbers today, and they are not pretty.

Brace yourself.

*Deep breath*

Here are the stats:

The Department of Health and Human Services released data showing that fewer than 27,000 signed up for an Affordable Care Act plan through the federal website Healthcare.gov between Oct. 1 and Nov. 2. Including those who signed up through state-based exchanges, just over 100,000 Americans have picked health plans through the program.  (source)

Abysmal.

Enrollment in private plans amounts to 1.5 percent of a forecast 7 million people who were expected to sign up by the time enrollment wraps up in the end of March. Nearly 1 million people have successfully checked whether they are eligible for government subsidies toward the new insurance, but have not selected a plan, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (source)

Not promising, is it?

Some 26,794 people signed up for private health insurance plans through the technologically-challenged federal marketplace and 79,391 who signed up through state-based exchanges.

396,261 people were deemed eligible for the government’s Medicaid program or the Children’s Health Insurance Program for the poor. (source)

Uh oh (But wait -wasn’t that the ultimate goal, anyway?)

Twitterers are a-Tweetin’ about the low numbers:

Reminder 106,185 people “signed up” includes people who simply put a plan in their shopping cart and haven’t paid yet http://t.co/qMEQgUQplf

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 13, 2013

So, 7 million people have lost their insurance thanks to Obamacare and only 106,185 have signed up. Terrific.

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 13, 2013

106,185 people enrolled in Obamacare. 108,713 attended the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Cowboys Stadium. #FullRepeal

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 13, 2013

RT @RealAlexJones THERE ARE MORE FEMA DEATH CAMPS THAN OBAMACARE ENROLLEES

— Cuffé (@CuffyMeh) November 13, 2013

If #ObamaCare enrollments double every month for next 5 months, still short of 7 million needed. Now that’s an #epicfail

— Tom Dougherty (@Tom1247) November 13, 2013

Hah. “More people signed a petition on http://t.co/TTvCSQ58Tx to build a death star than purchased insurance on http://t.co/P1WqNGMpyW.”

— Tony McDonald (@TweetTonyMac) November 13, 2013

100,000 enrollments total nationally. 1 million Californians alone LOST their health insurance policies. #ObamaCare

— SunnyRight (@sunnyright) November 13, 2013

Even if we do use the bogus “selected” figure, 40x more people LOST their insurance than signed up for #Obamacare in the first month. #fail

— Amy Lutz (@amylutz4) November 13, 2013

I think it would be awesome if the White House released enrollment number with the Powerball machine. “The first number is …zero.”

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) November 13, 2013

More people have applied to live on Mars than have signed up for Obamacare http://t.co/Nz38qKfnVx

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 13, 2013

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters shortly before the release of the data that “no one will be satisfied with the numbers because they will be below what we sought.”

Below what they sought? The number of October enrollments the administration expected was 500,000.

The administration blames low enrollment numbers on the infamous website glitches, of course.

Perhaps there are other reasons the numbers are so low:

Here’s what Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus said in a statement:

“While the Obama White House is sure to blame the poor enrollment numbers on the many unacceptable tech glitches that have frustrated Americans, I maintain that the larger reason ObamaCare has failed is because it was conceived based on a lie that Americans could keep their healthcare plans and has failed to address our number one healthcare problem in America: soaring costs. Reasons one million and one million and one why the federal government should not be running our healthcare.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich, said:

“Even if this data was an accurate picture, the Administration would need to enroll 68,000 people per day to meet their year-end goal,” he said. “However, [HealthCare.gov] isn’t even designed to handle that much traffic and is currently capable of only handling less than half that much.”

Meanwhile, Obama is holding fast to his claim that the website will be fixed by the end of November.

Sure it will.