The Obamacare Trainwreck Rolls On

A new Gallup poll report shows that America's uninsured rate dropped modestly this month as coverage expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law got underway, according to the closely watched survey released several days ago. in January, uninsured Americans dropped from 18% to 16.1%. The biggest change was for unemployed people, with a drop of 6.7%. The next largest drop was a 2.6% decline for nonwhites. Traditionally both groups are far more likely to be uninsured than the population as a whole. Americans in these low-cost potential Obamacare sign-up groups have been ambivalent about signing up so far. The uninsured rate dropped by 1.8% for women, well above the 0.6% drop for men. Uninsured rates also fell all along the income ladder, with those making $36,000-$89,999 seeing the greatest drop at 1.8%. Based on interviews with more than 9,000 people, the Gallup numbers could be the first evidence that core provisions of Obama's much-debated law have started to deliver health care access for vulnerable American groups. Virtually all Americans are now required to get coverage or risk fines. Insurers can no longer turn away people with health problems. New state-based markets are offering taxpayer-subsidized insurance to middle-class households. Medicaid sign-ups are also rising, partly because of a program expansion accepted by half the states and partly as a consequence of previously eligible but unenrolled people now forced to comply with the law's individual coverage mandate. Explaining the drop in the uninsured rate, Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief, said the drop was probably due to the new health care law : "That would be the most reasonable hypothesis." Nonetheless, Newport said it could take a calendar quarter to see a full trend. Other factors could also be behind the shift, including an improving economy. Newport explained : "The glass is half full for proponents of the Affordable Care Act because things are moving in the right direction. But the glass is half empty because things haven't moved much." The drop in uninsured unemployed people "comports with what the Affordable Care Act was intended to do," he added. But the Gallop findings of 2-3 million now covered under Obamacare are far below estimates of the Obama administration, which ranged as high as 9 million people benefiting by buying coverage in the new insurance exchanges. Gallup explained this wide discrepancy by the fact that administration figures include not only people buying coverage in the new insurance exchanges, but also Medicaid enrollees and young adults who can stay on a parent's plan until age 26. Some of those people may have been insured previously and either had to switch coverage because of the law or they joined a new plan because it turned out to be a better deal. The Obama administration has not clarified this. Glenn Kessler, author of the influential Fact Checker blog in The Washington Post warns us not to believe President Obama's claim that 6 million (9 million according to Gallup) people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Kessler told Newsmax TV that the figure is based on combining a figure of 2.1 million for people who have selected plans on state and federal exchanges, and 3.9 million for Medicaid. "The 3.9 million from Medicaid - that's essentially everyone who signed up for Medicaid in October and November,...But it turns out its two months of numbers have to do with everyone who ever signed up for Medicaid. It really doesn't tell you anything about how well the Affordable Care Act is doing. [It's] somewhat similar to saying you put something in your shopping cart at Amazon and that's what they're counting, all of the things that are in the shopping cart. They don't know how many people actually pushed the button and ordered the item." Another major problem Americans are facing under Obamacare is its provision that employers can opt out of Obamacare for part-time employees. While Obama said this would not happen, there is mounting evidence that Obamacare is stripping health care away from part-time employees. Target, a major retailer, has now Joined Home Depot, Walmart, and others in cutting health care for part-timers, citing Obamacare as the reason. Thus, Target has become the latest high-profile retailer to cut health benefits for part-time workers, citing both low employee participation and “health care reform” in a letter posted on its website. The Minnesota-based discount chain joins Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, Forever 21 and other large retailers in ending health insurance coverage for part-time staff as Obamacare comes into effect. Other companies like Walmart started cutting health care benefits for part-timers long before Obamacare’s January 1st start date. Walmart, the Arkansas-based low-price giant stopped health coverage for those working fewer than 24 hours a week in 2011. Walmart has replaced its health care coverage for all staff with coverage starting after certain periods of service Target explained early this week that fewer than 10% of the chain’s workers are currently enrolled in the company’s part-time health plan, which is available for employees working under 30 hours weekly : “The launch of Health Insurance Marketplaces provides new options for health care coverage that we believe our part-time team members may prefer,” according to Target, which said that each part-timer will be eligible for a $500 cash payment from Target. “In fact, by offering them insurance, we could actually disqualify many of them from being eligible for newly available subsidies that could reduce their overall health insurance expense.” However, workers’ rights advocates are taking issue with Target’s framing of its healthcare changes as an altruistic act : “Major employers like Target should not be looking to taxpayers to subsidize an employee benefit they can more than afford to pay,” said Carrie Gleason, executive director of the Retail Action Project, an activist group that has protested labor practices at Walmart among other companies. “Moreover, Target’s plan is part of an ongoing trend in the retail industry of capping workers’ hours to avoid the employer mandate for insurance,” she said. “The real issue at play here is that employers consistently don’t offer part-time employees health insurance.” Target assured employees there is no plan to cap workers’ hours, writing : “At any time, our team members can talk to their manager about their interest and availability to work more hours. In fact, during the holiday season we offered our year-round part time and full time team members the opportunity to take on additional hours or cross-train to work in other areas. ~~~~~ Dear readers, one thing we do know about Obamacare is that the federal enrollment website serving 26 states went down when it was launched October 1, and it took two months to make needed, but not all behind-the-screen, fixes. We also know that the company in which a friend of Michelle Obama is an executive vice president created the catastrophic website at costs estimated to be near $1 billion. And we know that this company has been fired and replaced by another company with no federal IT contract experience. And we know that both these contracts were entered into in non-bid procedures. Meanwhile, we know that at least 4.7 million people had their existing individual policies canceled because those plans, although preferred by those insured, didn't meet Obamacare's requirements. And, we know that insurers are still reporting glitches in the interfaces between the online enrollment data and insurance company IT systems, leaving many tbousands of Americans with no evidence that they are insured. This has led to individuals having to pay for doctor visits, procedures and prescription drugs. And we know that Americans familiarizing themselves with their new Obamacare health insurance plans are finding that some tightly restrict their choices of doctors and hospitals. And we also know that the bill for American taxpayers will far exceed any figure the Obama administration has nentioned. OBAMACARE - the word that stands for the destruction of the private American health care system. If the next Congress does not repeal it and handle uninsured and underinsured Americans separately, America will soon have government-controlled single-payer nationalized health care. And the best medical care system in the world will have disappeared forever.