Obamacare Results: Cancelled Plans Outnumber Enrollments

Remember when Obama promised that his healthcare plan would make sure every American had insurance coverage?

Well, the numbers are in, and so far, more Americans have lost their coverage than those who have enrolled in Obamacare.

At least 4.7 MILLION people have LOST their insurance coverage to date. As of yesterday, only 2 million customers signed up for Obamacare via the state and federal exchanges.

Why were all those plans cancelled? They didn’t meet the “higher standards of the Affordable Care Act.” Those standards include required coverage for 10 “essential benefits,” including maternity coverage for men and menopausal women and pediatric care coverage for those without children. The result was millions of cancelled plans and higher costs for those who were able to keep their coverage or purchase a new plan.

Some states and individual insurers elected to continue cancelled plans after Obama gave permission to do so. The Associated Press reported that information for each state in this chart.

The Obama administration has said enrollment needs to be around 7 million by March 31. Present figures show that approximately 25 percent of Americans who have signed up so far are in the crucial 18-to-34 age group, below the administration’s goal of roughly 40 percent.

Some officials are touting the 2 million enrollment figure as a “surge,” but the actual number of true enrollees is not known. Out of the 2 million who signed up through the exchanges, how many paid for their premiums is not known, and the question of how many will pay remains – those factors may drop the true enrollment number significantly. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute explained this issue in his Forbes column:

The administration had hoped to enroll 3.3 million paying customers by the end of the year, which would bring them 47 percent of the way toward their goal of enrolling 7 million paying customers by March 31. Those 2 million “sign-ups” are not paying customers yet, though the administration would like to give the impression that they are “enrollees.” Anecdotal reports suggest that only 5-15 percent of sign-ups have actually paid their first premium and are in fact enrolled. No premium payment, no coverage. The share of paying customers will undoubtedly rise but not to 100 percent, which means the number of pre-December 31 enrollments will be lower than 2 million.

Cannon goes on to explain why the 7 million enrollment goal is unlikely to be reached:

At this point, it seems impossible for the Obama administration to meet its target of 7 million paying customers by March 31. Doing so would require them to enroll more than 5 million paying customers in the next three months, instead of just 3.7 million. Put differently, the pace of enrollments in the next three months would have to double the pace of the last three months. It would have to make the leap from more than 40 percent below target to 35 percent above target. It’s hard to see how they can pull that off, given all the reasons ObamaCare and the administration have given people to wait until they are sick to buy coverage.

With more cancellations likely (some estimate the total number of cancelled plans will reach well over 6 million) and the risk of unpaid premiums, the actual number of Americans with health insurance coverage won’t be anywhere near the “every American will have health insurance” promise Obama made.