ObamaCare

 

ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges, Week One

 

By Dave Andrusko
As Week One of the rolling out of ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges grinds to an end, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind.
POLITICO has a piece titled, “Obamacare has time to fix exchanges — but not forever.”  It’s worth reading, because it is reasonably balanced.

For example David Nather, Brett Norman, and Jason Millman readily concede the exchanges “have been so swamped with traffic that they have been groaning under the strain,” but don’t necessarily take this as a sign that massive numbers of people intended to sign up. (They don’t address the exaggeration factor, but that’s okay.).
They remind us as well that it wasn’t just volume (real or inflated) that caused the meltdowns. The trio quote Dan Schuyler, director of exchange technology at Leavitt Partners, which has been consulting with states to help them build the exchanges, who said, “Some of the hangups are clearly design issues or technical problems.”

The amusing part is the last section, headlined, “They needed more time to build the exchanges, and couldn’t get it.” But, of course, something this mammoth could have used a LOT more prep time. However, it’s not like the deadlines were a state secret. “One way or another, the health care law says people have to be able to get health coverage in the exchanges starting Jan. 1, 2014 — the same date Medicaid expansion begins in the states that have agreed to do it.”

According to the Washington Post, “Many shoppers have thrown in the towel, at least for the foreseeable future. Coverage under the health law doesn’t start until Jan. 1, regardless of whether enrollees sign up on Oct. 1 or Dec. 1.” This is, of course, speculation, but it reinforce one of Nather/Norman/ Millman’s bullet points—that ObamaCare doesn’t have much time:

“[I]f things don’t smooth out by November, they say, the White House may lose the chance to build confidence in the Obamacare exchanges. “’If it’s not there in a month … there’s going to be a problem,’ said Joel Ario of Manatt Health Solutions, the former director of the health exchanges office at the Department of Health and Human Services.”

We’ve already talked about some of the substantive problems in two previous posts. Please read “List of companies that will drop health insurance under ObamaCare spreads to include a quasi-public entity, the Fairfax County Water Authority,” and “Obamacare tax on health insurance will affect most plans over time, reducing healthcare.”

Source: NRLC News