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View Full Version : Not many uninsured signing up, gee what a surprise--NOT!



Mainecoons
03-06-2014, 07:23 PM
The new health insurance marketplaces appear to be making little headway so far in signing up Americans who lack health insurance, the Affordable Care Act’s central goal.A pair of surveys released on Thursday suggest that just one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private health plans through the new marketplace have signed up for one — and that about half of uninsured adults has looked for information on the online exchanges or plans to look.
Taken together, the snapshots shown by the surveys provide preliminary answers to what has been one of the biggest mysteries since HealthCare.gov (https://www.healthcare.gov/) and separate state marketplaces opened last fall: Are they attracting their prime audience?
One of the surveys, by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. (http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/individual-market-enrollment/860/), shows that, of people who had signed up for coverage through the marketplaces by last month, just one-fourth described themselves as having been without insurance for most of the past year.
The survey also attempted to gauge what has been another fuzzy matter: how many of the people actually have the insurance for which they signed up. Under federal rules, coverage begins only if someone has started to pay their monthly insurance premiums.
And, the survey show, that just over half of uninsured people said they had started to pay, compared with nearly nine in 10 of those signing up on the exchanges who said they were simply switching from one health plan to another.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/health-insurance-marketplaces-signing-up-few-uninsured-americans-surveys-say/2014/03/06/cdae3152-a54d-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_print.html

Peter1469
03-06-2014, 07:36 PM
How many who actually signed up, paid?

Cigar
03-06-2014, 07:49 PM
Is it that time of the week, again? :)

Pass the tissue :)

Blackrook
03-06-2014, 08:10 PM
Posted December 27, 2013 - 10:37am Updated December 27, 2013 - 1:17pm

Fewer than 13,000 sign up on Nevada health care exchange



http://www.reviewjournal.com/sites/default/files/field/media/web1_web1_silver_state_hleath_2.jpg




Related story:
Obamacare numbers boggle the mind (http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/obamacare-numbers-boggle-mind)






By SANDRA CHEREB
ASSOCIATED PRESS


CARSON CITY — Fewer than 13,000 Nevadans signed up for health insurance on the state-run exchange by Monday’s deadline to obtain coverage at the start of the near year.

Exchange officials said 12,745 confirmed policy selections were made by the 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline. Payment on about half of those was still needed by 6 p.m. Friday to ensure coverage as of Jan. 1.

The enrollment numbers are unimpressive considering officials with the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange set a target enrollment of 118,000 by the end of March when the first sign-up period ends.
“It will be challenging to meet the 118,000 goal but we are working to make sure Nevadans have all the insurance options available to them and have the ability to enroll,” said exchange spokesman CJ Bawden.

Reasons for the lackluster enrollments were not immediately clear.

Navigators and enrollment assistants reported brisk business in the last days leading up to Monday’s deadline and the exchange reported averaging 100,000 new visitors per week since mid-December.

But according to the exchange’s Facebook page, many people reported problems trying to sign up online through the Web portal —www.nevadahealthlink.com (http://www.nevadahealthlink.com/) — or getting through on the phone on the last day.

“Website is white screening. Phone number is saying it cannot connect,” wrote one unhappy consumer. “Looks like a lot of people won’t meet the deadline due to the program not functioning.”

Another wrote, “On hold over 51 minutes. Unable to log on … frustrated in Tahoe!”

It’s also unknown how many people were trying to sign up for Medicaid or another insurance program for low-income children — a problem the executive director acknowledged was contributing to long wait times for telephone assistance.

“That caught us by surprise,” Jon Hager, executive director of the state’s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, told his board members earlier this month.

Nevada is expecting a surge in Medicaid enrollments under the law that gave states the option to expand eligibility. Beginning in January, Nevada for the first time will allow single adults without children into the Medicaid program if their income is at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $15,856.

Those enrollment figures have not been calculated yet, but the state Department of Health and Human Services reports the number of Medicaid participants in November rose to 336,949, up 2,645 from the month before and nearly 24,000 from the same month a year ago.

Since July the state Welfare Division has hired 100 new staffers in anticipation of continued growth in Medicaid recipients. State officials project Nevada’s Medicaid recipients will grow to 490,000 by the end of the 2015 fiscal year.


These numbers are not very impressive. 13,000 is fewer Nevadans than what it takes to staff one of the hotels on the Strip.

lynn
03-06-2014, 08:43 PM
Nevada have 250,000 eligible for subsidies on their exchange so 13,000 is nothing to brag about.

Blackrook
03-06-2014, 10:02 PM
I may have to sign up for Obamacare myself, but I'm afraid to have my identity stolen by the felons who work at the exchange.