Frankly, I'm amazed that 100,000+ people have already taken the last enrollment step which requires the first premium payment.
That makes the number of people who have submitted an application and had it approved all the more important.
From USA Today
According to an Associated Press report, the administration had hoped that 500,000 people would enroll by the end of October.
Officials emphasized that 975,407 applications — for 1,081,582 eligible people — have made it through the enrollment process but haven't selected a health insurance plan. And 396,261 have been found eligible for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Plans. The state and federal exchanges had 26,876,527 unique visitors.
So, out of the administrations goal of 500,000, the actual number is approximately 1,081,000 (106,000 enrolled + 975,000 approved).
Plus almost 400,000 who applied, were found to be eligible for Medicaid, and enrolled there.
So make that about 1,477,000 total people approved for health care.
Yes, the website sucked when it debuted. Heads MUST roll as soon as it's up and running completely.
But I cannot for the life of me understand why the Obama administration - and the President himself - can't figure out how to do a better job of pushing back on the 'disaster' claims.
And another point: EVERYONE in the individual health care market in the entire USA is getting a cancellation notice. Their policies fall into one of 2 categories (or both):
1. The policy doesn't conform to Obamacare standards.
2. The policy is being changed substantially - which includes any premium increase.
Oh, and BTW, where are all these people who are losing their 'cheap, good' individual insurance policies? I keep hearing GOP pundits and congresscritters complaining about thousands or millions of people in this boat.... but where are they? I bet most of them don't even know the terms of their current policy, much less what they qualify for under Obamacare.
Yes, I understand there are some people adversely affected, but are we really supposed to scrap our only chance at health care reform for the entire country because a few, relatively well-off (because these people probably don't qualify for a subsidy) people have to pay a bit more for health insurance? I don't.
Keep the faith, folks. This will work, and in a couple of years nobody will think twice about it...especially after we get a public option in there!
Cheers.
Update: Several commenters have pointed out that their payment is not due at time of enrollment. I guess I got bad information from another diarist....
Diary
Perhaps different insurance carriers have different requirements?