foxnews headline: Internal notes indicate only 6 people signed up for ObamaCare on first day

[spanone]

Notes from an Obama administration meeting about the problem-plagued ObamaCare website indicate only six people signed up for the health care law on its first day, according to documents released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Fox News' Ed Henry told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” Thursday that the documents, released by committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, are not official enrollment numbers, but say that as of the morning of Oct. 2, “six enrollments have occurred so far with five different issuers.”

The notes were taken at a “war room” meeting of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has been tasked with implementing ObamaCare.

They say that at the next meeting, which took place on the afternoon of Oct. 2, “approximately 100” people had signed up and 248 enrollments had occurred by the morning of Oct. 3.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/31/internal-notes-indicate-only-6-people-signed-up-for-obamacare-on-first-day/

[Newsjock]

1. Apparently true

Here's a somewhat more sedate report from CBS News on the subject:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57610328/obamacare-enrollments-got-off-to-very-slow-start-documents-show/

... The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say "six enrollments have occurred so far."

They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to "approximately 100." By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect "248 enrollments" nationwide.

The health care exchanges need to average 39,000 enrollees a day to meet the goal of seven million by March 1. The war room notes give a glimpse into some of the reasons customers had problems:
"Direct enrollment (signing up directly on an insurer's website) is not working for any issuers."
"Experian" credit reporting agency is "creating confusion with credit check information."
"Issuer phone numbers are not appearing correctly on the Pay Now page."

[alp227]

40. but remember, CBS had a phoney baloney report about Obamacare taking away a woman's insurance

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014633776

[The Straight Story]

2. Any links to the 'released' documents? No? Not even on the over sight website?

Nope. On Issa's site? Nope.

So where were they released to?

[Newsjock]

3. CBS has the documents posted on their story page

See above.

[NYC_SKP]

5. FUCK CBS.

Fuck their chickenass fucking story.

If you believe it because it's from CBS then you are in big trouble.

[Rex]

10. NOW NOW...are you saying the M$M would LIE TO US!?

Great next thing you will be telling me there is no Santa Claus.

[NYC_SKP]

13. Stop it.

I'm having a shit fit.

[Rex]

15. BREAKING CBS - CNN IS A REAL NEWS STATION!

Why have any faith in a station that booted Dan Rather for political reasons? A snake is still a snake. SOME OF US don't forget that shit.

[gopiscrap]

26. yes Virginia, there is no Santa Claus

[The Straight Story]

6. And the one they have shows 40,000 people on the site, just in the waiting room

Also notes direct enrollment is not working.

It also notes the first dashboard pull showed 6 sign ups, with no indication of what time the pull was done (5 minutes after online, 20 minutes?) That same moment in time showed 300 applications.

So it is, at best, misleading - a nice bone thrown out by Issa perhaps before they officially release some report (which may or may not include all of that info).

Not saying it wasn't a mess (and notice they mention credit checks in it?) but seriously, a bogus story meant to rile up people and get the rw to facebook.

[spanone]

20. it's fucking darrell issa! criminal.

[NYC_SKP]

4. My first point: BULLSHIT! My second point:

FUCKING BULLSHIT and fuck CBS and Fox news.

And why are you even bringing this here?

It's fucking impossible.

I can probably find 20 people I know who signed up on day one.

[The Straight Story]

7. Check out my post above yours (nt)

[NYC_SKP]

9. I'm livid at this assholery from Fox, Brietbart, WND, CBS, NBC, FreeRepublic, Bullshit!!!!

It should be locked and shame on those who post it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/02/1243394/-Obamacare-s-first-day-glitches-overshadowed-by-nbsp-success

What a bunch of bullshit.

[unblock]

8. what i just love is that suddenly republicans are pissed that so *few* people are signing up!

if obama came out in favor of the mom, apple pie, and the american flag, republicans would find a reason to object to that, too.

[NYC_SKP]

11. How DARE you post Fox News bullshit on DU, spanone? Fuck. (nt)

[spanone]

21. piss off. you think i'm printing this because i think it' true. well think again.

[NYC_SKP]

22. Then post a disclaimer or post it in the DU propaganda debunking group.

You should know better.

Add a disclaimer.

Or post it here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1022

[spanone]

23. bullshit. the fucking absurdity speaks for itself.....YOU should know better

[BlueStreak]

27. I don't know that it is absurd

I wouldn't have expected ANYBODY to sign upon the first day, even if the website were humming. Who makes a decision like that without doing at least a little bit of research?

These notes were undoubtedly related to healthcare.gov and not individual state sites. Some of the states had detailed information out ahead of October 1 so people could have done serious research ahead of the date. But not if you are in a healthcare.gov state. I wasn't able to get enough information to make a decision until about October 24. And I am still waiting because we are trying to be as accurate as we can in predicting how much income will appear on our 2014 tax return. So I probably won't actually apply for another couple of weeks. I bet a lot of people are the same way. There is no advantage in enrolling early. And given that the back-end part of healthcare.gov is reported to still have some problems (transmitting information to insurance companies), it actually might be better to wait until at least mid-November.

And some things are still changing. For example, the company I think I will be going with just made a decision last week to include the Indiana University Health Network in their ACA plans for the county where I live. That makes a huge difference.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Do look up how many people enrolled up

On Romneycare. There are parallels here.



Anybody expecting millions to sign up (as in pay and all) on the first day lacks understanding of human nature.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. And...

[NYC_SKP]

14. From the OP: "Fox News' Ed Henry told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File”....

I can't believe this wasn't posted in LBN!

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Well I admit to watching the local fox station

They are ironically the most balanced of all. You might want to read on the divorce between national and the GOP. It's an amusing read

The latest on this

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/republicans-have-officially-fallen-out-love-fox-news/71098/

[Barack_America]

16. So the private insurers have been slow to enroll people?

From what I've heard, Medicaid enrollments have gone much more smoothly.

[NYC_SKP]

18. Oh Snap!

In reality, yes, measurements on the first day of "successful enrollments" has to take into account several factors.

Included among these are VALIDATION BY THE INSURERS.

Not surprisingly, these six came from just two states and insurers who probably weren't pushing back.

Ha!

[Cracklin Charlie]

19. Are health care decisions usually made...

With only a few moment's deliberation?

Aren't people allowed to have time to consider their options concerning matters of such importance? Some of the people visiting the website haven't had access to ANY form of health insurance for quite some time. It takes time to decide which plan to choose.

What's Issa's big rush all of the sudden?

[bhikkhu]

24. Well, every blizzard begins with a single snowflake

I don't see how its anything more than a footnote, at this point. In my state something over 50k applications have been processed - by paper applications. I mailed mine in Monday and don't particularly care whether the online application works or not. The forms were easily done in the old traditional way.

[grantcart]

25. Well that means I was in the first 100, lol

Who signed up before December 15th is pretty irrelevant.

In March no one will give a damn how many signed up the first week.

If they get their 7 million by April we can drink Champagne.

Frankly the fewer they count in the first few days the more that will have to be added later, the totals will still be the same.

[BlueStreak]

28. We don't have to enroll 7 million for 2014. That's an arbitrary number.

This is a multi-year process. The long-term goal is to practically eliminate the burden shifting caused by millions of people showing up at ERs without insurance. We never were going to stop all of that in one year. Moreover, it will take years for the system to stop jacking up their prices in response to the uninsured problem. It realistically could be 5 years or more before the burden-shifting problem is essentially gone.

Some of the states don't have much competition at this point. In my case, all the policies are running $1300 - $1800 / moth for 2 people ages 58 & 60. That's terrible. I expect there will one or two more competitors in my exchange for 2015. As that happens, more of the uninsured people will decide to get in.

It isn't going to happen overnight. We need enough people to enroll such that it creates the momentum where the program cannot be turned back. That isn't necessarily 7 million people. It might be 3 million or 5 million. It is arbitrary.

[grantcart]

30. what state?

AZ I got a Gold policy for two same age for 757, and subsidy is paying $ 300.

They had processed about 500,000 by Oct 20.

They should be getting close to the first million any day soon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/20/we-know-476000-obamacare-applications-have-started-we-dont-know-how-many-will-finish/

I am guessing that they will exceed the 7 million, maybe they have to extend the open season one month.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. It was, three days ago

http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/28/obamacare-deadline-extended-to-march-31/

[grantcart]

33. No it has always been March 31st.

Media and the IRS doesn't understand key insurance terms and how signing up has changed.

The law has always required that you have insurance by March 31st.

The industry standard has always been that you have to mail in your premium by the 15th.

The industry standard used to be that you had to send your application in by the 15th of the previous month so that they can evaluate and decide to accept or reject your application.

With the ACA there is no longer a review process so you once you apply you are automatically accepted. You could there for apply on healthcare.gov pick a plan on the 10th of March and mail in the payment and still conform to the old system.

But now, at least some (mine for example) has advised me that they will accept debit cards up to the day before the end of the month so that I could make the payment on March 28th, for example.

Also it should be pointed out that if the March 31st deadline was missed and you enrolled in April the penalty is calculated on a monthly basis so for a family making $ 60,000 it would be a $ 50 penalty. I am betting that even if everything is going well that they will extend it at the last minute because that is when the crush is going to be but it would be self defeating to announce it now.

[BlueStreak]

36. I agree they are likely to have a grace period

The point is to enroll, not to penalize.

[BlueStreak]

35. Remember there is "processed" versus "enrolled"

Enrollment means the insurance company has received the package, everything checks out, they have issued the policy, and the customer has made the first payment. There is necessarily a lag time on that.

My state is Indiana. Competition here (at least in Marion County / Indianapolis) sucks.

[grantcart]

38. Also they begin on the first of the qualifying month.

A point that as an agent I have been trying to get over many times.

I can tell Congress how many new people are enrolled in new policies by 10/31.

Zero.

Even if there are a few eager beavers who made a payment in October (and there would be little reason for that because the policies aren't effective until 1/1/14) they wouldn't be enrolled until today.

Even the word "processed" has different meanings by different people.

Did Indiana join in the Medicaid expansion?

There was a guy from Rochester MN who had a similar problem. I wonder why there are problems in various cities?

[BlueStreak]

39. Re: Indiana

Indiana has not signed up for Medicaid expansion. The right wing Gov Pence is trying to get that federal money without actually expanding Medicaid. He wants to maintain a program where he requires co-payments from the plan participants, and still excludes people based on assets. Basically if you have a 1965 Rambler station wagon, you are too rich for the Indiana Medicaid program. As of now, I don't think the Obama administrations have caved in, but they have in some other states, so they probably will cave in here too.

Regarding competition, I don't have an answer why there is so little competition. United Healthcare was in the market in 2013, and I think Humana was also, but they aren't in the exchange, at least not in my county for my age group. I don't know of any reason why they wouldn't want to compete. It seems that our premiums are about twice as high as California's, for example, so I'd think more companies would want to get in on that. It is too late for 2014, but I assume more will get into the Indiana exchange for 2015.

The big improvement I'd really like to see is the public option being included at least in cases where the premiums are more than 10% above the national average. If the insurance companies had to deal with that, you can bet they would rush in to make sure there were no disparities like this because the last thing they want to see is a public option in the exchange.

[dchill]

29. "Fox News' Ed Henry told Megyn Kelly..."

Nuff sed. Really.

[Mass]

34. And it is shocking because?

When I was shopping for my MIL for Medicare D, I came back several times on the website, made sure that the product was working for her, and eventually signed up.

Also, note to Fox, you do not sign up for a law. So, I have no idea what they are referring to, in addition for not undestanding why it is so damning.

[Bolo Boffin]

37. This is just Healthcare.gov, right?

Because I find it hard to believe only six signed up on all the different exchanges out there, even with people waiting to deliberate.

But this 6 sign up figure will be the "reality" now. I see it happening on Twitter already.

[2banon]

41. Tonight PBS News Hour Reported 3 enrollments..

included screen shots of error and site down msgs.

interesting that fox doubled the numbers..

[Enrique]

42. documents are here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/31/obamacares-launch-looked-even-worse-from-the-inside/?wprss=rss_business&clsrd