Internal notes show paltry initial enrollment in Obamacare
Washington (CNN) - Six people.
That's how many Americans had successfully enrolled in the federal health care exchange by the morning of October 2, according to documents provided to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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Notes from a "war room" meeting at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance between administration officials and contractors working on the rollout of HealthCare.gov underscore the beleaguered debut of the online marketplace.
Posted online Thursday by the House committee, the documents indicate that the six enrolled individuals were issued policies from five different insurance companies.
"Healthcare Service Corporation had the two enrollments," the notes recorded.
By the next meeting, held that afternoon, notes showed "approximately 100 enrollments" had taken place since the launch of the federal exchange.
The following morning, the total had increased to 248.
Notes released by the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, do not include official enrollment statistics and represent an incomplete accounting of the enrollment totals, said Joanne Peters, a Health and Human Services spokeswoman.
Again, the department declined to release the number of Americans who have been able to successfully enroll in the exchange.
"We will release enrollment statistics on a monthly basis after coordinating information from different sources such as paper, online, and call centers, verifying with insurers and collecting data from states," Peters said.
Peters reiterated that a slow start does not mean that the exchange will not boast a healthy roll call by the deadline to enroll.
"We have always anticipated that the pace of enrollment will increase throughout the enrollment period," Peters said.
Citing the quiet pace at which Massachusetts residents registered for that state's health program, the spokeswoman remained confident that enrollment totals would tick up as more people learned about the exchange.
HHS remains focused on providing accurate enrollment totals and cannot yet give those figures because of collection issues.
"We have had more than 20 million visitors to the Marketplace, showing an overwhelming interest in Americans learning more about their options for affordable health care," Peters said.
The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance is part of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Crazy !
To many cooks in the kitchen , can't we make affordable healthcare simple ?
SIX FREAKING PEOPLE!!! For what we have spent on this, we could have purchased them all their own hospitals!!!
wow... that is way worse than what I thought... I thought they were saying it was in the thousands? :-O
something screwy here. somebody did a dos attack.
I wonder who would stand to gain the most?
Seriously. How much are the Koch brothers paying you for this nonstop pile of nonsense about the ACA.
900.000 have signed up already.
“That means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” – Barack Obama
I live in Massachusetts. There was less than 150 people signed up for the first month of Romneycare. We know have I think 95% of the state insured. Give it time people, inertia is hard to overcome at first but it will move.
I bet there were more snuggies ordered that night.
I would really like to meet these 6 people who signed up on day one. They were either congressman trying to save face and enroll in the same awful program they are forcing on to the public, or very tech savvy, die hard liberals, who were in just the right amount of poverty to receive a subsidy and with enough preexisting conditions that no private insurer in their sound mind would take a risk on them.
Kinda makes me glad I got wounded in Iraq.
Hmm...somebody lied...
A GOP Congressman reported this as something he had heard, and Wolff Blitzer ridiculed him following the interview. Go CNN!!!
I would have enrolled – IF there would have been a plan with an affordable deductible and premium.
I am going to enroll as soon as it's fixed, but my income is at a changing point so I figure I will wait or pay the fine for the first year
I was just looking for Dental coverage since the insurnace we have doesnt offer it and I still have not been able to get on at a time when the site is fully operational. If it ever does work properly ill sign up but so far 4 tries and 4 times it couldnt let me complete the process
This, like nearly everything else the government has ever done, will be just another bloated disaster and failed legislation / wasted effort / wasted money. I'm not anti "everyone getting healthcare" just this form of it. It only addresses 1/3 of the total uninsured, forces 16 million to change their policy, most with higher premium, higher deductibles and lower coverage and offers no enforceable way to penalize those whom choose to not enroll. All it takes to completely skip the ACA is breaking even or owing on your taxes, which even the average joe can figure out easily. The penalty can only be taken from your tax return, so get ready for tens of millions of people to now stop "loaning" the government money until return season.
The damn system doesn't work so people that want to sign up can't even establish an account. Once it works, you will see millions sign up for it. The IT people that setup this system have to be fired for incompetence.
Six... well.... with a Two Hundred Million dollar start up cost... (not counting them calling Google)... that's only 33 million each to make up the difference....
Geee is it possible that many Americans are still stuck with their job Insurance till Enrollment period comes up again? Do you expect people to somehow just walk up to the benefits department and say I want out now so I can enroll to Obamacare and they say sure no problem.
Not bad that is only 100 million per enrolee.
If the numbers are from Darrell Issa, one of the most prolific liars in politics, don't believe it.
Thanks Obama! All that for NOTHING!!!
That's good news. The bad news comes when all the new Medicaid sign ups happen and burden the taxpayers with their healthcare costs. And it only gets worse from there when healthy people of moderate income realize that since they can't be denied for pre-existing conditions its cheaper to pay the fine and only buy insurance if they get seriously ill.
Hopefully they have over a 1000 people signed up by now. If it cost 200,000,000 for the website that's 200,000 per customer.
How do they think that people, who cannot pay for insurance today, will have the money to pay copays tomorrow? And if they cant pay the copay, how can they pay for the medicine? I mean this is going to be a train wreck..