Report: Just 2.4 Million HealthCare.gov Customers Paid
Their First Premium
Just 67 percent of Obamacare
enrollees in federally-run marketplaces had paid their premiums by April 15,
bringing the federally-run Obamacare enrollment tally to only 2.45 million,
according to documents provided to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Obama administration has been
heavily promoting that 8 million Americans selected plans on Obamacare
marketplaces, but has refused to release any data on how many purchased their
plans.
According to all 160 insurers
participating in the federal exchanges, just 2.45 million people paid their
first month’s premium by April 15. That accounts for 36 states, although
high-enrollment state-run Obamacare exchanges — like California with its 1.4 million sign-ups —
aren’t included.
The 67 percent payment rate as of
April 15 is markedly lower than the 80-85 percent that experts have predicted
will end up paying their premiums. April 30 is the final day for most federal
exchange customers to make their payments.
Of those who have paid their
premiums, just 25 percent fall within the highly desired young invincible range
from age 18 to 34 — drastically lower than the administration’s minimum goal of
39 percent needed to avoid premium hikes next year.
The House committee compiled the
data from insurance providers participating in the federally-run exchanges
through HealthCare.gov, after requesting the information in early March.
Members will ask insurers to update the payment data by May 20 to include full
payments through April 30.
“In a sad reversal away from its
vows of transparency, the Obama administration, from inside the Oval Office on
down, has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep basic details of the health
care law from the public,” said Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton, chairman
of the committee. “Tired of receiving incomplete pictures of enrollment in the
health care law, we went right to the source and found that the
administration’s recent declarations of success may be unfounded.”
The Obama administration has been
touting exchanges’ 8 million sign-ups far and wide, but have come under fire
for refusing to release any data on the number of Americans that have actually
paid for their health care plans.
The enrollment data frequently
touted by the White House includes anyone who selected a health care plan via
an Obamacare exchange — similar to putting a product in a shopping cart on a
website, but not purchasing it.
Texas has the lowest payment rate so far at 42 percent, while
President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois
has had just 52 percent of customers pay their first premium.
While most customers had through
April 30 to finally pay up for their plans, the numbers question whether the
Obama administration will meet its goal of 7 million paying customers. Even if
customers have been paying up in droves over the last two weeks and meet
experts expectations of a 80-85 percent payment rate, real enrollment would
total between 6.4 million to 6.8 million.
It’s still not clear how many of
2.45 million paid enrollees were previously uninsured. After a report from
consulting firm McKinsey found lower payment rates from the previously uninsured, Manhattan Institute health
policy expert Avik Roy warned that the
previously uninsured could make up as little as 24 percent of paid exchange
customers.
An even more accurate measure of
Obamacare’s success will be how many Americans will continue to pay their
premiums each month. That tally will likely fall even further over the next
year.
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