TWO VIEWS
“The program is working. The politics may look challenging, but the law has beaten every effort to defeat it.”
Ethan Rome, former head of Health Care for America Now, which advocated for passage of the Affordable Care Act, in Politico
“Canceling millions of policies, then bragging when they sign up for another one is a little odd, don’t you think?”
Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
President Barack Obama’s heath care overhaul reached a milestone Thursday, with more than 6 million Americans signed up for coverage through new insurance markets.
The announcement — four days before open enrollment season ends Monday — fulfills a revised goal set by the Congressional Budget Office and embraced by the White House.
Like much else about Obama’s health care law, it comes with a caveat: The administration has yet to announce how many consumers actually closed the deal by paying their first month’s premium. Some independent estimates are that as many as 10 percent to 20 percent have not paid, which would bring the total enrollment to between 5 million and 6 million people.
“Being enrolled doesn’t mean it works. You have to collect money,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Politico.
Citing the uncertainty over how many people have actually secured coverage by paying their premiums, Caroline Pearson, who is tracking the rollout for the market analysis firm Avalere Health, suggested celebrations are premature.
“It matters politically,” she said. “It doesn’t matter from a market perspective.”
The White House said the president, traveling in Italy, made the announcement during a conference call with enrollment counselors and volunteers. Administration officials, focused on signing up even more people over the weekend, played down the occasion. Others said it was unmistakably a promising sign.
“I think the program is finally starting to hit its stride in terms of reaching the enrollment goals the administration set,” said John Rother, CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, a nonpartisan coalition of businesses, health care industry groups and consumer organizations. “It still has a ways to go in terms of achieving public acceptance.”
To put the 6 million sign-ups in perspective, consider that the HealthCare.gov website didn’t work when it was launched in October. Nonetheless, the administration’s achievement is still short of the original target of covering 7 million people through the exchanges.
Several million more people have gained coverage through Medicaid. The state-federal safety net program was also expanded under the law, but only about half of states have gone along.
Nonetheless, ongoing measurements by Gallup show that the number of Americans without health insurance has been slowly dropping since coverage under the law took effect in January.
Monday is the deadline to enroll through the new insurance exchanges, but potentially millions of people will still be able to take advantage of extensions announced this week.
Although the national number is important, what really counts is state-by-state enrollment. That’s because each state is a separate insurance market. To help keep premium increases in check, each state market must have a balance between young and old, healthy and sick.
“The national number only gets us so far,” said Pearson, the market analyst. “The fair measure of success is whether you have set up a market that is sustainable into the future.”
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As of just a couple of few weeks ago, it seemed like it would take a miracle of sorts for the administration to hit the 6 million mark. Enrollment in February was lackluster. But this week especially has seen a resurgence of consumer interest. The administration said HealthCare.gov received 1.5 million visits on Wednesday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been traveling constantly to promote sign-ups. Obama himself joined in reaching out to Hispanics, a large and relatively young population that has been sitting on the sidelines.
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Achieving the 6 million level was a relief to congressional Democrats. Polls show the law remains unpopular with the public, and Republicans are making repeal a central campaign promise in upcoming midterm elections.
Still, some Democratic lawmakers were hedging their bets. Five Democrats and one independent — three facing re-election — introduced a package of changes to the law Thursday, including one to spare companies with fewer than 100 employees from a requirement to provide coverage to their workers. The current cutoff is 50.
The Senate legislation was drafted by Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, along with Angus King, a Maine independent.
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