The recent celebration associated with the number of Americans who enrolled thru the federal exchange program (Obamacare) is in part a victory right? Well, let's look at the numbers.
About 5 million of the 7.1 million were individuals who had a individual health plan and simply were forced to secure a new one thru the exchange. So while about 2.1 million new sign up's occurred that is less than 20% of who could have enrolled. Plus some folks are mixing apples and oranges by saying we also have 3 million new sign up's for Medicaid so the victory lap is now based on 10.1 million.
First, Medicaid isn't individual health insurance so let's keep the two distinct for celebrations.
We need to get more signed up; it's going to boil down to economics. The insurance industry developed rates based on a boatload of assumptions and the bottom line is if we don't get more signed up and paying a premium we all lose!
Second, I seriously wonder if the current framework that existed to enroll folks (professional insurance agents with training and skin in the game) didn't provide the best vehicle to achieve the numbers we wanted to see. Who better than a agent who relies upon commission to help sign up those without insurance. OK, I'll stop my bitter rant.
The point is we may have built a stairway to nowhere and we may find the system produces more expense to run, manage and doesn't produce better results. So should we keep subsidizing a losing battle? If we look at it as any business person should; the answer is NO.
Ok, you are asking yourself- "which side is she on"?? Well, I personally believe every American deserves the right of access to healthcare and we should eliminate pre ex/plan maximums that hurt innocent people who simply get sick but I also personally believe we created a nightmare and we should look at the goal and fix the system to still reach the goal.
What do you think?
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