Many years ago when a friend of mine was having trouble finding anyone worthwhile to date, I jokingly told her, “When all else fails, lower your standards.”
What barely passes for a joke at last call is what they call public policy in the Obama Administration:
On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that fewer than 13 million individuals signed up for Obamacare plans for 2016. Though the administration is trying to argue that this 12.7 million number beat expectations, nobody is buying it.
HHS officials set an artificially low target of 10 million signups for the year – essentially flat from 2015 – so they would have something to beat.
“While exchange enrollment will meet the Administration’s modest 10 million person goal, it does appear that growth in this market has slowed,” Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president of healthcare advisory firm Avalere said in a statement.
The statement noted that in the first two years of Obamacare, exchange enrollment fell roughly 20 percent from what was initially announced, because those who signed up either didn’t keep up with their premiums or obtained other coverage. On this basis, Avalere estimated that year-end enrollment would actually be roughly 10.2 million in 2016.
But how bad is it really? Paul Krugman has been begging his fellow liberals to stop bashing ♡bamaCare!!!.
That Means It’s Working™
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