Thursday, April 17, 2014

Gallup Poll Figures Show Obamacare's A Loser

Okay, so the Gallup Poll is out with some new numbers on Obamacare signups (or lack thereof) and the figures are revealing.
As you might expect, NBC is spinning the poll to place it in the best possible light for Obama proclaiming that Obamacare has helped as many as 9.9 million to get new health insurance. And the headline, stretches it further, shouting "Obamacare helped up to 10 million get insurance."
But, remember -- we're talking about as many as and also up to here and those are obvious fudge words. And don't assume that all of these people signed up through Obamacare. They didn't.
When you dig into the story, here's what you find:

  • "Probably 7.26 million people" got health insurance since the last quarter of 2013.
  • There are still 36.3 million people in America without health insurance. 
  • Though 4.2 percent of Americans got a new healthcare policy using the federal and state exchanges ion 2014 only about half of those (2.1%) were without insurance coverage in the first place. The rest used the exchanges to replace policies they already had -- or ones they may have just lost -- because of Obamacare in the first place.
  • The people who are buying these insurance policies rate themselves as less healthy than the general population. Not good for the financial state of affairs for Obamacare.
  • And the worse news of all, for Obamacare: Younger people aged 18-29 tended to gravitate to buying health insurance directly, not on the exchanges, while those signing up on the new exchanges tended to be in the 50-64 age group. This younger group is vital to the success of Obamacare and it's not yet sold on the program -- not by a longshot. Younger, healthier people need to make up a huge part of the program so they can offset (and pay for) the older, less-healthy insurance enrollees. 
  • Finally, buried deep in the story is this stunning statistic: 54 percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of Obamacare. Only 43 percent approve.
No, the number of uninsured has not dropped significantly under Obamacare.
No, the number opt signups has not made a significant dent in the overall numbers.
No, the all-important youth group is not signing up at anywhere near the numbers that are needed to make the program a success.
And no, people have not changed their minds about Obamacare. They still don't like it.


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