Republican opinion is split in the wake of the success of the first ACA Open Enrollment period. Some want to back off from repeal, and others are doubling down, as is their usual response to anything.
Update: I can access the site freely now, so there is more of the crazy below, along with more of the numbers. Big numbers for possible extension enrollments and actual off-exchange enrollments, especially from California and BCBSA.
Eric Cantor: GOP against minimum wage because Obamacare
I reported some of it yesterday, and there is much more today. But that will have to wait.
I'm having a lot of trouble here on Daily Kos today. I constantly but seemingly randomly, get the error message
If you're seeing this, we're doing an update and will be right back.
For more information, visit status.dailykos.com, for up-to-the-minute updates and news on what's going on.
but there is no current information at the link, and my problem is clearly not due to an update in progress. If anybody knows what is really going on, please tell us.
As a result this is going to be a minimal Diary, with just the latest links from brainwrap's ACA Signups, plus one link to Andy Borowitz. Then I will see whether I can access enough of the dKos site to report on what else is going on among the fratricidal Republicans, either in updates here, or in a separate Diary.
News
Second update
Massachusetts: 29.7K QHPs, still 200+ stuck in Limbo
eHealth Insurance CEO: 51% Previously Uninsured
Oregon: 55.8K QHPs, 141.3K Medicaid
Hawaii: UPDATED 3/31 QHP Total: 7,600 + 265 SHOP
California: THERE we go; 1.22M QHPs, 1.9M Medicaid thru 3/31
Source:
CoveredCA Press Release, 04/03/14
Hat Tip To:
Alan D.
OK, this is why CoveredCA was holding off on announcing their numbers: Peter Lee had to testify before Congress today anyway:
Enrollment in Covered California private health insurance plans hit 1,221,727 through March 31. In fact, March was the highest single month of enrollment, with more than 416,000 people signing up for a health insurance plan.
...Medi-Cal enrolled approximately 1.9 million people through the end of March, including 1.1 million through the Covered California portal and county offices, approximately 650,000 former Low Income Health Program (LIHP) members who were transitioned to Medi-Cal by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and 180,000 individuals who applied through the state’s Express Lane program.
In addition...
- Health insurance companies report that more than 85 percent of those who enrolled are paying their premium and getting coverage. If that trend continues, more than 1 million Californians are on their way to coverage through Covered California.
- At the end of this first open-enrollment period, 4.3 million people had completed their applications for health coverage.
-
If I'm reading this last part correctly, it sounds like: 4.3M - 1.2M - 1.9M = 1.2 million more potential enrollments by April 15???
Or, I might be misreading this. Not doing anything with that data at the moment, but if that's accurate then the extension period could also be HUGE.
BCBSA reports 1.7M Off-Exchange QHPs NOT including March
And there we have it: Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post reports that BCBSA (the family of Blue Cross companies, as well as Anthem, Regeant, etc) confirms 1.7 million ACA-compliant QHPs sold OFF-exchange nationally from October 1st through March 1st (that's right, the rest of March isn't included; for comparison, March made up 40% of the exchange QHP total for the open enrollment period)
Update
Maryland: QHPs up to 63K, new Medicaid up to 232K Total
Paid/Unpaid: Going with 93% "Paid or Will Pay Within a Reasonable TIme"
Best number.
Interim CEO of @MNsure, Scott Leitz, to tell U.S. House subcommittee that 95% of its 47,000 enrollees have paid, and the rate will rise.
— Jeffrey Young (@JeffYoung) April 3, 2014
Others are somewhat lower. Substantial numbers of people are paying for their insurance
before the bill is due.
April 3
Vermont: QHP correction to 22.2K, 25.9K Medicaid
Hawaii: 3/31 QHP total: 7,861, 46,605 Medicaid
Oregon: 55K QHPs, 245K Medicaid
Kentucky: REGULAR exchange enrollments extended until 4/11!
Kos wrote about this here yesterday, and I passed it along to brainwrap.
Colorado: SHOP enrollments up to 1,770
Nevada: 41.8K Total QHPs, 25.9K Paid
Sub26ers: Reducing the Lower Line
April 2
House Rules: Spreadsheet Data
An Updated Look at the Paid/Unpaid Issue (UPDATED)
House Rules for Insurance Companies at ACASignups.net
The Crazy Starts…Right Now
Have fun!
Here are the dKos Front Pagers on the current state of the Obamacare freakout.
Diary on Borowitz Report snark
Issa Subpoenas Seven Million People Who Signed UP for the ACA, by Bethesda 1971
Eric Cantor: GOP against minimum wage because Obamacare
Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Bobby Jindal thinks he's a player; Sam Baker unchained
WaPo:
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday announced a plan to repeal and replace President Obama’s health-care law, an effort by the Republican to insert himself into the increasingly competitive early maneuvering for his party’s presidential nomination.
and other ACA-related stories. Bobby Jindal for
Lord of Misrule!
McConnell wants to diskynect 370,000 Kentuckians from their health care
Making matters worse back home for McConnell, the enrollment rates are highest precisely where Republicans poll best.
Rove vs. the Kochs in North Carolina GOP primary
What's the problem for Tillis with $1 million being spent on his behalf? Instead of saying anything at all about Tillis and "repeal," it says Tillis has "the conservative guts to replace Obamacare with honest health care reforms." That's drawn from a radio interview Tillis gave in February that suggested he thought Obamacare wasn't a wholly terrible idea.
Bill Kristol isn't just wrong on foreign policy. On everything else, as well, by kos
One of these days, we'll all be shocked at Bill Kristol for getting something right. Today isn't that day.
I think Kristol was right once, and commented on it.
The sum of all GOP fears
But the Clinton proposal is also a serious political threat to the Republican Party.
Obamacare is doomed! (Or at least these guys thought it was.)
claim chowder
Oh, very good. Well played.
The Ryan budget's Republican vision for America: Less
Claims to save $2.1 trlllion by repealing Obamacare.
Further freakout, with occasional sanity
House Republicans Launching Yet Another Attack On Obamacare
The Debate Is Over on Repealing Obamacare
Conservative Wonks Warn GOP: Obamacare Repeal Is Dangerous
Ross Douthat, Avik Roy, Bill Kristol
"[W]e do know that there won’t be an immediate political unraveling," wrote Ross Douthat…
Roy, who has long been warning that repeal without an alternative is untenable, again cautioned of political and substantive problems with the Republican party's headlong pursuit of eliminating the health care law without coalescing around solutions of their own.
Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, voiced concern that a GOP message of "repeal" and a Democratic message of "keep and fix" could "neutralize the issue" in the 2014 mid-term elections. He also said the benefits can't simply be taken away.
"If Republicans run on repeal and replace or really let's say replace and repeal, it has to be done at once. You can't just throw people out," he said on Fox News Sunday. "But we are going to give you tax credits, we're going to take care of preexisting conditions as part of the repeal, then the polling shows that becomes very, very popular."
How Well Is Obamacare Covering The Uninsured? A Glass Half Empty Moment