Was Obamacare Worth It? How Many of the Previously Uninsured Have Really Signed Up?

Health insurance reform was long overdue. But did it need to be done the way the architects of the Affordable Care Act did it?

Obamacare was enacted, and the private health insurance market fundamentally changed, so that we could cover millions of people who previously couldn't get coverage.

Are enough people getting coverage who didn't have it before to justify
the sacrifices the people who

The One Thing That Could Save Obamacare––And The Obama Administration Needs To Do It In the Next Month

To properly price the exchange health insurance business going forward
the carriers have to sharply increase the rates. A senior executive for
Wellpoint, which sells plans in 14 Obamacare exchanges, is quoted in a Reuters article
telling Wall Street analysts there will be big rate increases in 2015,
"Looking at the rate increases on a year-over-year basis on our
exchanges, and it will vary

What Individual Mandate? It is Looking More and More Like the Obama Administration Will Not Enforce the Individual Mandate

It looks to me the Obama administration will claim at least 6 million
enrollments by the end of March. But that will mean 75% of subsidy
eligible people will not have bought a plan.

Will the 2014 mandate to buy health insurance be enforced come tax time?

It sure doesn't look like it.

To
be sure, the administration is not making any major announcements prior
to the close of open enrollment

Republicans Considering Proposing High-Risk Pools––Health Insurance Ghettos

We are hearing that Republicans are considering proposing high-risk pools as part of an alternative health insurance reform proposal to Obamacare.

A high-risk pool proposal would likely mean the Congress giving states the flexibility, and perhaps funding, to set up these risk pools. Risk pools by definition are a place where people can go when they are not able to buy health insurance in the

Silly Republican Insurance Reform Ideas––Selling Insurance Across State Lines and Association Health Plans

There are news reports indicating Republicans will be proposing such longstanding health insurance reform ideas as selling insurance across state lines and association health plans.

These ideas have been around for some time and have served Republicans as convenient talking points out on the campaign trail positioned as common sense alternatives to Obamacare.

When I discuss these ideas with

Gallup: The Number of Those Uninsured Is Falling––Why All of the Amazement?

Reading the many press reports about the new Gallup poll estimating the number of the uninsured I couldn't help be surprised by their surprise.

Under the headline, "Obamacare Working?" CBS reported that Gallup found the uninsured rate had fallen to 15.9% in a survey taken during January and February. That was down from 17.1% at the end of 2013––a reduction of 2.5 million adult Americans.

Other

Obamacare: The Uninsured Are Not Signing Up Because the Dogs Don't Like It

Here's my version of a classic corporate marketing story from the 1980s:

A big dog food company decided to come out with the latest and greatest new dog food. They hired the smartest consultants from the big universities in Boston to advise them. They had their scientists, who know far more about nutrition than any consumers or the dogs, come up with the most nutritious formula they were

Extending the Obamacare Cancelled Policy Moratorium––One More Contortion in the Pretzel

The administration has confirmed that the individual policies that were supposed to be cancelled because of Obamacare can now remain in force another two years.

For months I have been saying millions of individual health insurance policies will be cancelled by year-end––most deferred until December because of the carriers' early renewal programs and because of President Obama's request the