The Obama administration has finally revealed how many people have picked health insurance plans through Obamacare’s dysfunctional HealthCare.gov exchanges — and the number is embarrassingly low.
According to the administration, 106,185 people have applied for private insurance through the new marketplaces, which are a product of the controversial Affordable Care Act. That total amounts to 20 percent of the administration’s enrollment target for the month of October.
In Maine, just 271 people have signed up for insurance through the marketplace. Conversely, 8,500 have had their Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans cancelled because of Obamacare, while 3,800 have seen significant alterations to their MegaLife plans, thanks to Obamacare.
In other words, the number of Mainers who lost their pre-Obamacare insurance plans is 45 times greater than the number of Mainers who have selected insurance at healthcare.gov.
[RELATED: More than ten thousand Mainers losing health insurance because of Obamacare…]
But that meager figure is probably too optimistic, as the feds admit it includes people who have not actually paid for their insurance plans.
According to the federal report, 623 healthcare.gov applicants have been successfully funneled into MaineCare, Maine’s medical welfare program.
Maine’s major newspapers – the Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald- have yet to report on the insurance cancellations caused by Obamacare, first reported by The Maine Wire.
Steve Robinson
Maine Wire Reporter
SERobinson@themainewire.com
Dirigo deja-vu. Remember when they rolled out Dirigo? Much fewer “than expected” signed up. The program never covered even 1 tenth of what was promised. Dirigo health had no pre-existing condition exclusion so those that enrolled waited until they were sick, causing extreme adverse selection. The plans, unless subsidized, were just as costly as through the private market. Eventually they ran out of money. Dirigo delayed for a decade necessary health insurance reforms that were finally pushed through by Republicans in the 125th and became PL90.