Colorado’s dismal Obamacare numbers
Posted by Richard on December 6, 2013
Colorado is one of the 16 states that set up their own health care exchange to implement Obamacare. It’s called Connect for Health Colorado, and it seems to be much more functional than the Fed’s Healthcare.gov (not that that’s saying much). But they’ve posted their metrics for October 1 through November 30 online, and the numbers aren’t pretty.
During the first two months of operation, they say that “Enrollments” were 74,270. But 64,290 (over 86%) of those were people pushed onto Medicaid. Only 9,980 actually signed up for a private insurance policy. Since the feds have decided to use the “honor system” instead of any income verification, there’s no telling how many of the 64,290 understated their income and aren’t actually qualified for Medicaid (or how many of the 9,980 are getting insurance premium subsidies for which they aren’t actually qualified). According to Watchdog.org, a third of those on Medicaid in Illinois (pre-Obamacare) aren’t actually eligible. There, too, virtually every Obamacare enrollee has ended up on Medicaid.
Of course, all those new Medicaid enrollees may end up with a bad case of buyer’s remorse when they discover the level of care and choice of providers they’re stuck with (fewer and fewer doctors are accepting Medicaid patients due to the very low level of reimbursements, and those that do practice assembly-line medicine).
Much more devastating for Obamacare’s supporters are the demographics for Connect for Health Colorado’s enrollees. Fully 43% of the 74,270 are ages 55-65, and another 18% are ages 45-54. A mere 11% are ages 26-34, the “young invincibles” that the Obama administration was counting on to subsidize the older folks who are much greater consumers of health care. That’s an epic fail.
Each passing day seems to bring more bad news for Obamacare, and the poll numbers reflect that. It’s too bad that there isn’t a political party with the commitment to limited government and competence in messaging to take advantage of the situation.
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