There was a bit of bad news for Obamacare in the CBO report that did
not say that the law would kill more than two million jobs. Now that that's put to rest, here's the ACA problem the CBO
did identify:
two million eligible people won't enroll this year, largely because of the botched rollout of the website. But here's the good news for the administration in finding and reaching out to most of them—
they know where they are.
Geography could hold the answer, according to a study conducted for The Associated Press. It found the uninsured aren't scattered around the country willy-nilly; half live in just 116 of the nation's 3,143 counties. That means an outreach campaign targeted to select areas can pay off big.
The pattern also holds true for the younger uninsured, the health care overhaul's most coveted demographic. The study found that half the uninsured people ages 19-39 live in 108 counties. Their premiums are needed to offset the cost of insuring older adults, who are more likely to be nursing chronic ailments.
With the HealthCare.gov website working more smoothly, the Obama administration is using the geography of the uninsured to write a playbook for its closing sign-up campaign. Open enrollment for subsidized private insurance ends March 31 for people who don't have health care through their jobs.
Just to show how well Republican sabotage efforts work, the two metro areas with the most number of eligible people who still haven't signed up are in Texas, Dallas and Houston. Then comes to more Republican state cities: Miami and Atlanta. These states not only aren't publicizing the law, they've enacted any numbers of state laws and regulations to make the job of outreach more difficult.