As readers know, ObamaCare is going to have another “Open Enrollment” period starting November 1. The White House could be lowballing the estimates to look good, or at least better, when the final numbers come in, but consensus seems to be that enrollment is becoming increasingly difficult:
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced Thursday that an expected 10 million Americans will be covered by late 2016 by health plans they bought on the federal and state insurance exchanges created under the law.
That figure is just half the most recent forecast by congressional budget analysts, who have long expected 2016 to usher in the biggest surge in enrollment. The number represents a marginal increase from the 9.1 million Americans the administration believes will have ACA health plans by the end of this year.
And:
But questions linger over whether it can reach deep into the pockets of the nation’s most intractable uninsured populations and whether people who currently have health plans through the marketplaces will decide that the coverage is worth keeping.
Yes, “whether [the administration] can reach deep into the pockets of the nation’s most intractable uninsured” is a precise description of the problem. Although pockets can be found in many places, as we shall see.
– naked capitalism