For example, in the state of Washington, of the 57,730 who have signed up, a whopping 51,368 were for "free" Medicaid services. Given that Medicaid is jointly funded by the state and federal government, this is bound to put a hole in the state budget.
Nonetheless, state officials are pleased with the result as noted by the Peninsula Daily News.
Nearly 1,400 early birds on the North Olympic Peninsula signed up for health insurance on Washington's health care exchange in October, according to data released by the state Friday.Obamashock! Theory and Practice
In the first month after health care reform launched Oct. 1, a combined 1,390 in Clallam and Jefferson counties completed new insurance sign-ups through Washington Healthplanfinder.
Most of those sign-ups were for the free insurance offered for low-income individuals through Medicaid.
Statewide, 57,730 insurance sign-ups were completed. Of those, 51,368 signed up for Medicaid.
State officials predict those numbers will spike, with 72,136 applications somewhere in the process and 21,671 who have chosen a plan but still need to pay for it.
“Those numbers are growing every day,” Washington Health Benefit Exchange spokesman Michael Marchand told The Associated Press.
The Washington Health Benefit Exchange said nearly 500,000 individuals visited www.Wahealthplanfinder.org in October. Of those, more than 150,000 are fully enrolled, completed an application that is awaiting payment or started an application.
Statewide, looking at just the private insurance enrollments, 37 percent were in the 55-64 age group, nearly 20 percent were in the 45-54 age group, 19 percent came from the 35-44 age group, nearly 18 percent came from the 26-34 group, and about 5 percent came from the 18-25 group.
The numbers were spread out more evenly among Medicaid enrollments, with the biggest segments for free insurance in the younger-than-18 and 26-34 groups.
“Young adults are a critical target for us, and it is great to see that 6,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 have signed up for health coverage in just the first month,” Marchand said.
Most of those young adults will get free insurance through Medicaid. Only 328 in that age range signed up for private policies.
Recall that Obamacare is supposed to work by getting young adults to overpay. That was the general idea, in theory. But what if youth refuse to pay, or only sign up for free services?
In practice, only 328 out of 6,000 young adults in the 18-25 age group are actually paying anything. Somehow 5.47% constitutes a success. And the numbers are "growing everyday".
More Obamashock! success is on the way (including tax hikes and insurance rate hikes to pay for the alleged success).
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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