This is from Marketwatch, the WallSt Journals online arm so it can't be considered lefty propaganda:
Peter V. Lee, the executive director for Covered California, Obamacare’s incarnation in the Golden State, said Thursday 500,000 people who started the enrollment process online didn’t get a chance to finish. It’s unclear how many of those will sign to public exchanges — Lee says about half could end up on the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal
Yep, they also state in the article that so far, CA has accounted for 17% of Obamacare (love that name more each day, my grandkids will love it too in a couple decades). That means, since math is irritatingly consistent, that if CA has 250K more enrollees to offer, then the nation should have about ONE AND A HALF MILLION more souls in the pipeline for that ACA love.
""Zoinks Scoob, but AllahPundit just told me that there
wouldn't be enough crazy young kids like us enrolled and rates
would be going WAAYYYYY UP!"
Oh, and Mr Lee (AKA, the man who should know more about this than anyone on Earth) had more to say:
Lee said young adults enrolled with increasing frequency during March, with the 18-34 age group accounting for 32.1% of the monthly total. That drove up the overall cumulative to 28.2%, or 344,000 — exceeding base projections of 212,000. Experts have said the share of young adults should be a third or more in order to help spread the risk for carriers.
Lee said, however, that 28.2% is higher than actuaries projected when they priced individual health plans, so it’s a good bet that premiums will come down over the years ahead.
Did you get that last line? I bolded it because it will be the money shot that splashes the GOP right in the face this fall. I've been saying it and now the Executive Director of Covered California is saying it: Rates will be coming down on ACA policies next year.
But the Sunday Talk Shows are full of serious thinkers who insist that rates are going up, UP UP!
A man who "works for a major insurance company" said off record that rates would TRIPLE ferchrissake!
So how could rates go down when serious people with fifties haircuts (doesn't Paul Ryan look like Steve Ditko cut his hair?) say they will go up? Because they are liars who don't know what they are talking about because they are also incompetent. Here is why:
Insurance companies hire actuaries who are outstanding at predicting the future of populations. Many insurers are very profitable with pools of tens of thousands to work with. Statewide ACA pools range up to the millions. Furthermore insurers rely on "re-insurance" to offset freak cost overruns. We hear about them all of the time as "Risk Corridors". Companies pay for this re-insurance so there is no fear of a "bailout".
While politicians believe in over promising and under delivering, insurers prefer to do the opposite because that makes them more profitable. Thus, while pundits have been told consistently that the ACA pools needed to be a third under 34 of age, actuaries never accepted that this would happen. They are in the business of reality. Thus most companies have overpriced their Obamacare offerings. On the other hand some companies intentionally underpriced to gather a large market share early in the experience, not worrying as much about losing insignificant margins.
Thanks to the ACA's Medical Loss Ratio guidelines many insurers will end up cutting checks to customers this fall. Many more will drop their prices but probably not by much. You see, these actuaries know what they are talking about. Just like the ones at the CBO who said we would hit 7 million enrollees
.
That quote is from me, a legitimate managed healthcare insider. Somehow I doubt I will be attributed in any Townhall posts anytime soon though.
Make Yourself Feel Better - Kick A Republican Congressman To The Curb Today
Recently someone remarked that my use of the word "treasonous" was a little over the top when I wrote this:
Most of us live in safely carved Democratic or Republican districts. Thanks to gerrymandering far more are Red than would constitute a representative government. That is why in 2012 Americans gave 1.5Million more votes for Democrats in Congress and yet Republicans hold a huge majority in the lower house. This is nothing short of treasonous. If you live in an non competitive district you need to find a competitive purple district to adopt and help with.
Well to that I say, "KISS MY ASS!" These traitorous bastards have stolen my vote and a lot of yours out there. Thus we must fight that much harder. Currenty generic polling shows Blues over Reds by almost two points and yet the headlines are that we will get killed. Why? Because rats have rigged the system so much that we need a 6 point advantage to win back the House but we had that in October and we will have it again in November thanks to the ACA... thanks to Obamacare, so help wherever you can.
Erin McClelland's campaign would be a great place to start. The PA-12 is a purple district carved from the bones of Jason Altmire and Mark Critzes' old digs. Anyway those blue dogs are gone and this suburb of Pittsburgh is ready for a genuine progressive voice.
Erin will gladly kick Keith Rothfus' arse to the curb this November in your name
With Gerrymandering screwing over PA and many other states (Dems won the raw
congressional vote in PA by 75,000 and yet Republicans won 13 of 18 districts - seriously, where is the DOJ?) Dems who live in safe districts, safe D as well as safe R, need to pour cash and muscle into those purple districts that are, by and large, winnable. PA-12 is one of them so make yourself feel good and slip her a twenty today at
her ACT Blue site.