Enrollment of Obamacare Soars
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 26th, 2013
Good morning!
So nice to see some comments! I was wondering if I was going to be all alone in blogsville. :)
Thank you for all the delightful Christmas wishes. I had a wonderful time and I plan on these good feelings continuing through the new year and beyond. I feel so blessed and grateful for so much. I HOPE that you do too, and that your Christmas was abundant and beautiful with your family and friends as well!
Now…onto today’s write…
Obamacare Sign Ups Soar Just Before Deadline, As Record 2 Million Visit Healthcare.gov
Tuesday was the extended deadline to sign up through the Obamacare exchanges in order to be enrolled for health coverage starting January 1. The day before, Healthcare.gov saw record traffic of 2 million people visiting the site and more than 250,000 phone calls over the course of the day.
Despite the Tuesday deadline, the administration said it will continue to work this week with people who had difficulty getting through the website.
“Our highest priority is making sure that everyone who wants to enroll to have health care coverage by Jan. 1 is able to do so, particularly since consumers had a hard time accessing HealthCare.gov in October and November,” administration spokesperson Julie Bataille said. Starting Thursday, “Consumers who tried to enroll prior to today and had problems with the system should contact the Marketplace call center for individual assistance.” A spokesperson earlier compared the extension to standing in line to vote when the polls close: “You still get to vote.”
CNN Money reports that federal and state exchanges all saw a surge of interest at the last minute: More than 6,700 people in Connecticut signed up Monday, while New York saw nearly 20,000 and California 27,000 in a single day. Several states, including Massachusetts, Oregon, and Maryland, have chosen to extend their deadlines for the state-run exchanges to the end of the month.
As the administration resolved the technical problems that plagued the initial rollout, enrollment steadily gained steam. President Obama announced last Friday, more than 1 million people had signed up for private coverage through the exchanges, up from 365,000 before November 30.
*****
Readers: Health and Politics were light discussions at our Christmas table this holiday. Although my relatives are Dems sometimes their viewpoints aren’t totally accurate. I was prepared. Some were concerned about the next presidential election. “Whoa…wait a minute…let’s not think that far ahead, we still have the midterms first and let’s not make a repeat of the last midterms.” Thankfully it was all very civil as I had expected.
So…What did you chat about around the dinner table? Blog me.
Melissa, Jessica, Luiza, Raquel: Thank you. Each of your requests are noted.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 26th, 2013 at 10:38 am
I waited till the last minute and paid the price. Website was slow, but got it done. I do not see this as the massive failure that the republicans are hoping for.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:39 am
What mess? Daughter and I completed our enrollment weeks ago. The “mess” was resolved by beginning of December. If you still need coverage, you can go in now.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:41 am
Some of us are small business owners who’ve been scraewed by the existing system for decades, but you ninnies wouldn’t know anything about that.
The vast majority of you get sizable insurance subsidies from your employers and that cost is passed on to everyone who purchases what your companies make.
Quit acting like you’re paying your own way at no cost to the rest of us. Youre a bunch of entitled brats, whining like bullshitting hypocrites.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:42 am
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to All.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:46 am
Not sure why the government is involved in our healthcare? Just like the banks and oil companies, the drug and insurance companies love us like their own children.
They would never do anything to hurt us or rip us off. Just the other day I saw a bank commercial with a puppy in it. Come on guys, a puppy.
And BP is cleaning up the shores of the gulf on their own accord, without anyone even asking them to. My insurance company refuses to pay my claims just to help me better understand the value of money.
And the drug companies, they are the best of all. Just yesterday they let me give myself a shot in the butt instead of using that more expensive, and more effective medicine my Doctor wanted me to use.
Hey, not to change the subject, but I have a few acres of prime Florida real estate I need to sell so I can afford a new Kidney. Bought it from this really honest guy who said it would be worth a lot of money as soon as the government finishes filling it in.
Just send me a large envelope full of cash. Trust me, you will get exactly what you deserve.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:47 am
85% of people in this country have insurance through their employers. So of your 5 million people who had their polices “cancelled” that leaves, statistically, 15%, or about 750,000 people, who don’t have an employer who is simply going to offer a better plan.
Figure half of those people are the working poor who were paying for junk policies, and who now qualify for significant subsidies. That leaves you with maybe 400,000 folks.
Of those 400,000, probably half live in high-population blue states that expanded Medicaid, so they now qualify, like the many people in Kentucky, for Medicaid.
In short, I know this is gonna come as a shock to you, but there’s a very good reason why 5,000,000 people aren’t in the streets screaming about losing their insurance: it’s because they haven’t.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:49 am
This thing is such a mess people are afraid they are going to be without healthcare. Now that Oduma has said don’t worry we will give it to you no matter what happens , and you also don’t have to pay right away and basically he will spend an enormous amount of the taxpayers money to subsidize the people the insurance companies, advertising companies and whatever it takes to make the MCA (Mandatory Care Act) successful because I dictator Oduma have said so!! Again what an incompetent, narcissistic , hypocrite, he should get an award for being the best.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:50 am
My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter got signed up over phone in less than 30 minutes. Great cost, great deductible, after no insurance at all, really a blessing!
Thank you, Obama and Congress that passed this.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:51 am
Remember, when they say 2 million, that means about 3.5 million more PEOPLE have insurance, because they aren’t counting the children and the spouses when the national average is 1.5 kids. Heck, that’s more than 3.5 million.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:53 am
This is to those people who make 55k plus a year and are now complaining about $590/m for health insurance under ObamaCares.
You make 55k a year which means if you are having to spend 590 dollars a month for insurance your total outlay would be 7200 dollars a year, which I would think is more than 8% of your income, and therefore you don’t have to buy insurance under threat of penalty.
Meanwhile, I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life paying roughly 3,000 dollars a year for crap insurance that I can’t use, unless the alternative is bankruptcy, so Merry Christmas to you from the guy who’s been subsidizing your cheaper insurance, in spite of the fact that you make twice as much money per year as I do.
December 26th, 2013 at 10:56 am
I’m so tired of the republican refrain – “Wait until you get the actual bill.”
Already paid my first month’s premium. So did my daughter. She’ll be saving $400/month just on her prescriptions. This is good news.
For many millions of people, the long-awaited reform of health insurance means life-saving medical services for themselves and their loved ones.
If you can’t be happy for your neighbors, I feel sorry for you.
December 26th, 2013 at 11:07 am
Yes, the fed website was a mess for 2 months, but now its relatively fixed, and there will no doubt continue to be some problems. That’s just how these things work historically.
That being said, somehow, having a record breaking number of visitors is a failure and mess to the right. Right now there are almost 1.8 million people who have picked a private plan (no numbers in enrollment yet) and I suspect we will see that number increase much more as the by the end of the month.
Just about 1.5 million picked a plan in 3 weeks this month, not including final numbers from from the 23 and 24th. I live in Mass, and this is probably going to take another year or two at least for this to become the norm for consumers and the exchanges
December 26th, 2013 at 11:09 am
The website is a mess, it is up and running yet the security is low grade.
The real mess is the millions of people who had insurance losing it because of the ACA making their policies obsolete or unaffordable.
My 88 year old mother for example got her renewal from BCBS, It more than tripled in cost, it would take her entire monthly income to keep it.
The website is just that a website, the ACA is the mess, I guess Mrs. Pelosi should have let people read it before they voted for it.
December 26th, 2013 at 11:10 am
The mess I speak of are the millions of policies being canceled, and the other millions that have tripled in cost to be UNAFFORDABLE.
Government is not capable of running the post office more or less health care.
December 26th, 2013 at 11:12 am
KP#13, I have gotten my actual bill and it was exactly what it was supposed to be. Why spread so much misinformation?
December 26th, 2013 at 11:13 am
KP#14, If Congress was the least bit helpful, the post office, Amtrak, and the ACA would run much more smoothly and probably at a profit.
December 26th, 2013 at 11:15 am
KP#13 still telling the same old horror stories I see. Your mother is 88 and her insurance tripled? I guess you think there is at least one person that believe you.
December 26th, 2013 at 11:16 am
Misinformation is all they’ve got. And the more people who sign up for insurance, the more desperately nutz their claims become.
I’ve already got my new insurance cards in hand, and they’re still posting, “You only THINK you’ve enrolled!” I checked which doctors accepted this insurance before I bought it (took two clicks, people) yet the rwbrigade keeps posting, “Wait till you find out that no doctors will accept your insurance!” Sillytrollz.
December 26th, 2013 at 12:23 pm
When I saw the reindeer on your Santa hat, what came to mind is that I would love to leap between those legs.
December 26th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
When will people listen? You were informed about the high surf and not to go into the water until the warnings were over. Four people died for not paying attention.
All 4 deaths occurred while a High Surf Advisory was in effect. That advisory expired at 6pm yesterday evening.
December 26th, 2013 at 12:33 pm
I’d like to sample some of those “Juices” myself. But, alas only Doug and perhaps Anonz knows how sweet they are.
Happy New Year, and we can DREAM.
December 26th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Hafa adai,
Condolences…amo ewe chon Nemenem epwe eti familien ekkewe mei attong, epwe echipa me oururu netiper non ei fansoun netipeta.
December 26th, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Lea, here is what happened. Police have identified 37-year-old Katwin Dois and 40-year-old Edward Sotam as the men who died yesterday after they were pulled from the waters near the Jonestown overlook.
Dois and Sotam were drinking in the area around noon yesterday with two other people, according to Guam Police Department spokesman A.J. Balajadia.
At about 3:40 p.m., Dois fell off the cliff onto a rock below, knocking him unconscious. Waves swept his body out to sea. Anso Sotam and Katner Dois leapt into the water to help Dois and were soon after followed by Edward Sotam.
Edward, however, jumped into the whitewash area, preventing him from swimming out and slamming him against the rocks, knocking him unconscious as well.
Anso Sotam and Katner Dois were able to retrieve Katwin Dois’s body, police said, but weren’t able to bring it to shore. Anso Sotam then swam back to the shore to call for help.
Police and fire rescue units responded to the scene where they retrieved Edward Sotam and transported him to U.S. Naval Hospital Guam.
At about 5:30 p.m., police located Katwin Dois’s body, which was taken to the Hagatna boat basin and then transported to Guam Memorial Hospital.
Both men were pronounced dead on arrival to the respective hospitals, according to police.
December 26th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
a belated Merry Christmas to you Michelle, and everyone! Hope you enjoyed your holiday.
/SB
December 27th, 2013 at 6:51 am
http://useconomy.about.com/od/healthcarereform/a/Obamacare-Explained.htm
The simple version and it’s got a link to obamacare pros & cons (though it seems to me the pros far outweigh the cons especially in the long term – though amerikans tend to be short sighted esp when it comes to ‘where’s the profit for ME now’ and ‘how’s this make ME money’ categories) and didnt that just sound as though the concerns are a bit narcissistic and of ‘entitlement’ mentality (yup, just ask your local GOP party member who has great insurance for THEMSELVES).
Ill apologize now for typos if there are any, smartphones and predictive text have a mind of their own and it’s difficult to go back and correct on a small screen.
Luv, Zen Lill
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