On October 11, 2013, I posted a diary which cited a CNBC report which made it sound like over 84,000 people had managed to enroll in healthcare policies via the ACA exchanges in the first week and a half, in spite of the massive technical problems at HealthCare.Gov and some of the state exchanges.
It would later turn out that the numbers cited in the article were pretty misleading; while a few states which ran their own exchange websites were indeed off to a good start, some of the data only referred to applications (not actual plan selections), while the numbers out of the main website (HealthCare.Gov) were pathetic at first due to the technical mess (it turned out only six people actually slogged their way through the entire process at HC.gov on Day One).
One passage in my 10/11/13 diary would prove to be prescient, however:
Presumably there'll be a big rush to actually sign up as we approach mid-December, since that's when you have to be signed up for coverage to start in January.
So, bottom line: Healthcare.gov sucks (for now), but Obamacare in general is actually off to a decent (if shaky) start.
Seriously, though, HHS should really start releasing the official (accurate) numbers of actual signups for all 50 states (or at the very least, the 36 states that they're responsible for) on a daily--or at least, weekly--basis. I don't care if it's a pitifully small number. 100,000? 10,000? 100? 10? Even if it's in single digits, release the damned numbers. Be upfront about it. Everyone knows by now how f*** up the website is, so be honest and just give out the accurate numbers as they come in.
Besides, that'll make it all the more impressive when those numbers start to (hopefully) skyrocket over the next 2 1/2 months.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that diary would mark the launch of something much bigger than I ever intended.
Two days later I registered ObamacareSignups.net (later ACASignups.net) and announced my intentions via another diary:
OK, given that the HHS Dept. is not releasing any actual, official ACA/Obamacare signup numbers until a month has passed, I've decided to launch a simple website devoted to tracking the numbers as they're reported by the states running their own exchanges, as well as other reputable sources.
...However, I'll need your help. I'd appreciate it if 15 people (one for each state exchange, plus one for D.C.) could volunteer to check the media in each of those states for the latest official (hopefully accurate) figures on how many people have actually signed up for a healthcare policy via the ACA (as opposed to just creating an account, although those numbers will be listed as well).
That initial launch diary received 11 Recommends and 4 comments...but I think most dKos members know the rest. I posted regular updates here at dKos throughout the first 3 months of that first, crazy Open Enrollment period before expanding ACASignups.net from just a spreadsheet and graph to a fully-featured blog/data analysis site in late early January 2014. I’ve always made sure to still cross-post here at dKos from time to time, however.
Since then, my work caught the attention of major media outlets, and has been cited and used as a resource ever since by media outlets spanning the ideological spectrum including the Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg News, Vox.com, MSNBC, the New Republic, USA Today, the CATO Institute, National Review Online and The New York Times among others, as well as prominent medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. I’ve even managed to get formally cited in U.S. Senate testimony (bonus: this is likely the first time the phrase “Screw your base” has appeared in the Congressional Record).
I've been operating ACASignups.net for nearly 4 years now. It started out as a nerdy hobby thing in my spare time, but quickly overtook my life. I always planned to shut it down after the first Open Enrollment Period ended back in April 2014...and then in March 2015...and again in 2016. Year after year, people clamored for me to keep it going one more year.
At this point a year ago I really planned on winding things down as of around April 2017. My reasoning was simple: If Hillary Clinton succeeded Barack Obama as President, there probably wouldn't be that much ongoing interest in my work. After all, I figured, it's not like there are websites devoted to breathlessly tracking Social Security enrollments in real time.
After four years, I assumed that interest in the site would drop off enough that it would be time to archive the site and refocus on my day job. Yes, that's right: I have a day job as a freelance website developer. I know that's hard to believe given how much time I spend on ACA/healthcare matters, but it's true...and frankly, I've been increasingly neglecting that business more and more of late, right when I should have been building it back up again.
Needless to say, that's not how things played out. Instead, interest in the site and my work crunching numbers, analyzing data and educating the public about the consequences of healthcare policy changes has instead become higher than it has since that first crazy Open Enrollment Period over 3 years ago. This long ago stopped being a “hobby” or a “sideline” of mine; it now occupies a good 90% of my time, and my web design business has continued to dwindle substantially as I’ve had to spend more and more time debunking the latest nonsense from the GOP (and also occasionally calling out the Dems when they screw up on ACA stuff as well).
I’m especially thankful to Markos and the folks here at Daily Kos who put together a big fundraiser immediately after the first Open Enrollment Period ended spring 2014. Several hundred dKos members chipped in and not only helped make up for the website development business I had lost over the previous 6 months, but contributed enough to enable me to spend the bulk of my time keeping the website and my analysis going through the second year as well.
For the third and fourth years, I’ve patched together enough support through a combination of banner ads and one-time donations via PayPal and GoFundMe to cover about half of the time that I spend on the ACA Signups project, and I'm eternally grateful to those who've helped out.
However...if I'm going to continue working on the site, analyzing healthcare data, debunking fake/misleading claims and educating the public about how the ACA works, the real problems it has, how to fix them and where we should go from here, I need to have a more stable, consistent source of support. That's where Patreon comes in.
If you're not familiar with Patreon, it's pretty simple. Instead of making a one-time pledge/donation the way that you do with fundraising sites like KickStarter or GoFundMe, with Patreon you pledge to make a small monthly donation on an ongoing basis. The pledges officially start at $5/mo, but you can choose as little as $1/mo if you prefer; every bit helps!
Here's an excellent, in-depth article about Patreon over at The Verge. It's similar to a subscription-only site, but without the limitations--all content on ACASignups.net will still be available to all visitors, it's just that you'd be supporting me over at Patreon, where I'll also be adding some additional content/analysis there as well. For those who pledge higher support levels, I'll be experimenting with a few more bells & whistles like the occasional podcast and/or livestream Q&A, that sort of thing. (Of course, if you'd prefer to stick with a one-time donation, the PayPal/GoFundMe routes are also still available!)
The bottom line: As long as the GOP is using false data and fake claims to try and take away our healthcare coverage, I plan on being here to debunk their bullshit with accurate information. But I’ll need your help.
Anyway, if you appreciate the work I do at ACASignups.net, please consider becoming a patron today!