OBAMACARE DEBACLE - Update 2/13/2014

[bsteadman1]

Obamacare Enrollment Rate Slows Markedly In January

The Weekly Standard
Jay Cost
2/13/2014

Excerpt:

On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that enrollment in the Obamacare private exchanges increased by 1,146,071 in January. In December, HHS reported 1,788,000 enrollees in the month of December. That suggests a drop-off of approximately 500,000, or 29 percent. (See the chart on page 5 here for a graphical representation).

Yet this underestimates the true extent of enrollment dropoffs. The HHS reporting period for December was four weeks, beginning on 12/1 and ending on 12/28. The reporting period for January was five weeks, beginning on 12/29 and ending on 2/1. This suggests that in December, enrollments averaged 447,000 per week, compared to 229,000 in January, or a 49 percent drop-off in new enrollees.

It is clear by now that the administration will not reach the original CBO estimate of 7 million enrollees by the deadline at the end of March. The real question is: how far short will they fall? If February’s enrollment rate matches that of January, the Administration will be able to claim 916,000 more enrollees in the current reporting period, for a grand total of about 4.2 million. That is 60% of the initial CBO estimate with a month to go before the end of open enrollment. On the other hand, it is hard to tell whether matching the pace set in January is reasonable for February. Notably, Kathleen Sebelius announced on January 24 that HHS had reached 800,000 enrollees already for the month, suggesting that the rate in the final two weeks of the month was lower than the rate in the first three weeks.
..................................................

View the complete article at:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ry_781553.html

[bsteadman]

Obamacare Enrollment Hits 3.3 Million (but not really)

Breitbart / InstaBlog
John Sexton
2/12/2014

Excerpt:

HHS announced Wednesday that a cumulative total of 3.3 million people have now signed up for private insurance through the Obamacare exchanges but that figure includes hundreds of thousands of individuals who have failed to make their first premium payment.

Three weeks ago Breitbart News looked at a mid-January announcement by HHS that enrollment had surpassed 3 million and estimated what that meant for the entire month:

Since December 28th enrollment is up about 850,000. If we assume the three million milestone happened mid-week then the total at the end of January should be in the neighborhood of 1.1 million.

The actual January enrollment announced today was 1,146,000.

The administration continues to say it cannot estimate how many people who have selected plans have actually paid a first month's premium since the payment system has not been built. Experts and journalists who have spoken to insurers say the total percentage who have not paid is around 20 percent. This means it's possible HHS is now double counting some people who were dropped after failing to meet a mid-January deadline but are now applying again.

HHS also highlighted the fact that the percentage of young people 18-34 enrolling was 27 percent in January compared to just 24 percent in October through December. That's an improvement obviously but it's not nearly enough to bring Obamacare to the overall 38 percent level that was anticipated prior to launch. Once the new figures are averaged in with the rest, we can see how little difference they make. The cumulative percentage of young people for all four months of enrollment now stands at 25 percent, an increase of just one percent from where it stood at the end of December.
..........................................

View the complete article, including video, at:

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2...but-not-really

[bsteadman]

President Met with Kathleen Sebelius 18 Times Before Rocky Obamacare Rollout

Mediaite
Noah Rothman
2/13/2014

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has stressed that President Barack Obama was not aware of the problems associated with the Affordable Care Act prior to the launch of the ACA’s online insurance exchange portal on October 1, 2013. On Thursday, documents obtained by The Hill cast doubt on that assertion. An investigation by The Hill‘s Kevin Bogardus and Jonathan Easley revealed that Obama met with Sebelius at least 18 times in the year prior to the implementation of the ACA, often to discuss the health care reform law.

After reviewing 750 pages of documents The Hill obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request show that, between October 12, 2012, and October 6, 2013, Sebelius met personally with Obama. On seven of those 18 occasions, the two were slated to discuss the ACA’s implementation, according to Sebelius’ draft schedule.

Sebelius also met with a number of White House advisors close to the president multiple times over the course of that year, including former White House Counselor Pete Rouse, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

The schedules suggest Sebelius was an active White House presence in the months leading up to the botched rollout, and raise new questions about why Obama wouldn’t have known about the problems that were exposed on Oct. 1.

The documents also reveal that Sebelius met personally with influential journalists and columnists like former Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein on August 2 and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on April 23.
..............................................

View the complete article at:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/presi...acare-rollout/

[bsteadman1]

Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft

National Review Online
Jillian Kay Melchior
2/13/2014

Excerpt:

The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit, the Denver Post reports:

[Christa Ann] McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings.

She was indicted Jan. 16 and notified her current Denver employer, the state-sponsored health exchange, on Monday, a few days after the story broke in Montana media, Connect for Health spokesman Ben Davis said in a telephone interview.

Connect for Health performed a criminal background check and checked references before hiring McClure in March, Davis said.

“She was completely clean,” he said. Her position as executive director of Housing Montana of Billings, he said, made her well-qualified for her post as Connect for Health’s director of partner engagement — she was liaison with state and federal partners, such as Medicaid officials. The job pays $130,000 a year.

… McClure, who has not been convicted of any charges, should have informed Connect for Health much earlier of the accusations she was facing, Davis said.

McClure was released pending trial, now scheduled for June. Each of the counts in the indictment against her carry potential penalties of five, 10 or 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The 12-page indictment alleges that, while serving as executive director of the federally funded Housing Montana, McClure, between 2008 and 2010, paid herself “significant sums” for consulting services, although she was already on the payroll as a full-time employee.

She also made payments to her family and used federal money for personal travel, to pay family bills and to buy consulting services, the indictment alleges.

................................

View the complete article at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...n-kay-melchior