Thanks to the latest eyebrow-raising numbers out of California, the ObamacareSignups.net tally--including Medicaid expansion--now stands at 1,622,521 .
I should note that the big numbers from both California and New York are rather fuzzy, because they're very large but also don't give any real breakdown. The other day Rep. Capps of CA-24 claimed California has 600,000 added to Medicaid and 125,000 applications on the exchanges; today CoveredCA claims 227,000 applications...but doesn't break this out, so that could be a major issue. By the same token, NY supposedly has 200,000 completed applications...and another source claims 27,000 of these are Medicaid. I'm fairly certain that the breakdown is actually more like 140K Medicaid to 60K Exchanges, but I can't be sure for now.
If you were to remove both California and New York from the totals completely, they would both drop dramatically, to around 573,000 combined, so this is a pretty important thing to sort out.
It's important to understand that sources and methodology for this sort of tracking is going to vary widely, depending on what exactly it is that you're trying to track (as well as the source, of course). In my case, yes, I'm including Medicaid expansion signups, because ultimately, what matters is people actually getting decent medical care at an affordable price.
In addition, I've chosen to include applications for healthcare plans, even if they haven't actually been enrolled yet. You could certainly argue that I shouldn't count it, but frankly, so many of the articles/sources I'm using fail to make that distinction either that I grew tired of trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.
One very strict (and openly anti-ACA) tracking source, EnrollMaven.com, lists the number as only about 41,000. Another, the Advisory Board Company, puts the number at 160,000, but with 404,000 applications.
The question of whether to include Medicaid/SCHIP numbers is important from an economic viability standpoint (ie, the HHS Dept. supposedly needs 7 million people to actually sign up for paid healthcare policies via the exchanges to keep the program afloat...with a good 1/3 of those being young/healthy types).
Due to the extreme influence of Medicaid signups on both this number as well as the financial health of the Exchange program, starting with Week 5, I'm keeping Medicaid numbers included BUT have decided to start breaking them out separately as best as I can.
As a result, you can now see that a more accurate breakdown is appx. 510,000 Exchange applications/enrollments and appx. 1.1 million new Medicaid/SCHIP enrollments.
Anyway, to keep my tally going and up to date, I'm STILL looking for people to assist by taking on one or more states.
I have 24 states covered so far, but
if you're interested in assisting with one of the other 27 states (+ DC) available, email me at cgaba (at) brainwrap (dot) com, thanks!
To clarify: All I'd be asking people to do is to scour the web/Google/Twitter/Facebook/etc. on a regular basis for anything related to the ACA/Obamacare/the Exchanges that's specific to the state you choose.
Just email me the link to the story, the number and the date and I'll take it from there.
In many cases I'll already have found the same number (or a different one) elsewhere, or from the same source, but it's still helpful to have a 2nd pair of eyes for each state.
Alabama
Alaska (Girdwood)
Arizona (page in seattle)
Arkansas
California (ybruti)
Colorado (MotherShipper)
Connecticut (gchaucer2)
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii (Rolfyboy6)
Idaho
Illinois (gloriasb)
Indiana (Mokurai and another assistant who wishes to remain anonymous for now)
Iowa (gloriasb)
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland (dadadata)
Massachusetts
Michigan (mistletoe)
Minnesota (Minnesota Deb)
Mississippi
Missouri (gloriasb)
Montana
Nebraska (Bob the Old Soldier)
Nevada (CJB)
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York (timmyc)
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon (rsmpdx)
Pennsylvania (pierre9045
Rhode Island (rugbymom)
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee (Al Fondy)
Texas (bastrop)
Utah
Vermont
Virginia ("Ramu" (no dKos account))
Washington State (rsmpdx)
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming (blue aardvark)
I also want to extend a special thanks to ArcticStones, who has provided a dozen fresh sources for various states .
There's still 13 states that don't have any numbers to report whatsoever, even an anecdotal tale.
ObamacareSignups.net