Add this data point to the myriad reasons ObamaCare is monumentally bad public policy. The very people it was supposedly designed to help — the uninsured — are staying away in droves. Michael Barone exposes the ugly truth.
Start with the assumption that just about everyone wants health insurance. You can easily find polls that support this proposition. ObamaCare architects assumed that if you offered health insurance with subsidies for those with relatively modest incomes, those currently uninsured would flock to apply. So far that seems not to have happened. A McKinsey & Co. survey of those thought to be eligible for ObamaCare health-care exchanges found that only 11% of those who bought new coverage between November 2013 and January 2014 were previously uninsured.
Two small insurance companies told Wall Street Journal reporters for a Jan. 17 article that only 25% and 35% of those purchasing their policies were previously uninsured. Larger insurers don’t yet have numbers, but it seems that far fewer of the uninsured than expected are signing up. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll reported that only 24% of uninsured under 65 had a favorable view of ObamaCare while 47% had an unfavorable view.
We must jettison this policy and infuse the health insurance/health care delivery system with competition and choice. To follow the latest on ObamaCare, as well as why we must take a different course, rely on the analysis of Katherine Restrepo, JLF’s health and human services policy analyst.
