When Republicans sink their teeth into a conspiracy, they really just can't let go. And this one is a doozy, made up of President Obama, the federal government, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, state governments, insurance companies, nonprofits like Kaiser Family Foundation, and polling outfits like Gallup. They've all teamed up to lie about the more than 7 million people who have health insurance through the private insurance exchanges, in the fever dreams of Republicans. The great minds in House Republican leadership have thus come up with this:
"Debunking Obamacare's 7 million Enrollees 'Success' Story". It's based on what they say are unanswered questions:
- How many effectuated enrollment (signed up and paid a premium)
- How many paid their first month’s premium but not their second or third
- How many were previously uninsured
- How many young and healthy signed up (affecting rates)
- How many received a subsidy (raising concerns about fraud)
Some of these have been answered already, and will continue to be answered with the next few months reports (for example, the people who signed up in March don't even have second or third premiums yet to pay). Some of them the administration doesn't have answers for. Some of them aren't all that relevant.
As TPM's Dylan Scott points out the government released an enrollment report in February that answered the last two questions: "First, 25 percent of the 4.2 million people who had enrolled through February were ages 18 to 34, the crucial 'young and healthy' group. Second, 83 percent of those who signed up for a plan were eligible for financial help." That's the numbers as of February, and the administration will update those numbers with March's enrollments. Not that Republicans will believe it, since they're completely dismissing the previous report. As for how many were previously uninsured, that's not something the administration can answer because they don't collect that information. Neither do insurers. And the administration can't answer who's paid their premiums yet, because only insurers have that information.
There are plenty of data points outside of the information that the government collects Republicans can look to. Like the Gallup survey and the RAND Corporation study that show real decreases in the uninsured population. Or they could ask UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest insurer, that is so satisfied with how they've done in just five exchanges this year that they are very likely to expand their participation in the exchanges next year. That doesn't sound like they're getting stiffed on premium payments by their new enrollees. But apparently insurers are in on the conspiracy, too.
Seems to me like all this "unskewing" is a desperate attempt by Republicans to try to distract us from the fact that they still don't have a replacement plan, after nearly four years of promising one.