One Fifth of Obamacare Enrollees Have Not Paid Their 1st Premium

Two days ago, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that the number of Americans who have selected an Obamacare plan has reached 3.3 million.

Note the choice of words, though – “selected” does not mean “enrolled“.

Selected simply means a plan was chosen on one of the exchanges. The insurance industry uses the term “enrolled” after a customer has paid their first premium.

The administration’s use of the word “selected” is smoke and mirrors.

Now that we’ve clarified that, how many people have paid their first Obamacare premium and are officially enrolled?

The Obama administration claims to be unable to provide that number because the government has not finished building the “back end” of the computer systems needed to pay insurers.

That in itself is disturbing.

Insurance companies and industry experts have provided true enrollment numbers, though.

The New York Times reports:

One in five people who signed up for health insurance under the new health care law failed to pay their premiums on time and therefore did not receive coverage in January, insurance companies and industry experts say.

This means that the “enrollment” number of 3.3 million that the Obama administration is throwing around is not even close to being accurate. In fact, knock off about 20% of that number, and you get 660,000 – which is the approximate number of “enrollees” who have not paid their first premium, and are therefore, not actually enrolled. So, a more accurate estimate of true enrollees is around 2.6 million.