ObamaCare enrollments in Illinois: at best, halfway to goal

Media outlets across Illinois are trumpeting the “surge” in ObamaCare enrollments during March, as well as the “extended” enrollment period during the first half of April. But to see the reality behind the ObamaCare enrollments, one needs to dig deeper than the Obama administration’s press release. Instead of counting people who have actually paid for...

Media outlets across Illinois are trumpeting the “surge” in ObamaCare enrollments during March, as well as the “extended” enrollment period during the first half of April. But to see the reality behind the ObamaCare enrollments, one needs to dig deeper than the Obama administration’s press release.

Instead of counting people who have actually paid for a plan, the administration is continuing to count anyone who put a plan in his or her shopping cart, but has not necessarily paid, as being enrolled in ObamaCare.

In Illinois, only about 217,000 people have “enrolled” in the ObamaCare exchanges. But that still won’t tell you the number of people covered. Only the number of people who have actually paid for a plan are truly covered.

According to insurance industry data released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday, only 52 percent of Illinois’ ObamaCare “enrollees” had actually paid for coverage. Even if one assumes that every single “enrollee” who still has time to pay does so, that would mean that the absolute highest number of people insured through the private exchange is just above 160,000 – which is, at best, about halfway of the state’s 300,000 enrollment goal for this year.

While there is still time for some late-comers to pay for their coverage, there should be little doubt that Illinois has barely moved the needle on moving people from uninsured status into private coverage.

The Obama administration has been relentless in claiming that ObamaCare has been a success. But 185,000 Illinois policies in the individual market were canceled last year, many people are facing skyrocketing premiums and deductibles, and many hospitals and physicians are not covered under ObamaCare exchange policies.

Given the long trail of broken promises that were made to sell this health-care scheme, it should be no wonder that the administration continues to chant victory while concealing the reality of this calamitous program