Robert Ariail for October 21, 2013

What does Obamacare? He’s not required to get his own plan…

465,000 have registered. The HHS and administration won’t release the numbers on people who actually bought a policy but the number is likely somewhere between 35,000 and 60,000.This is roughly about 10 to 15% of what the administration expected to get on the plan to date.So, Obamacare may be a “steam roller,” but if it is it is one that has no steam.

And, apparently based on what numbers have been made public no one who needs insurance is going to get on the plan…

After all, including various state plans the overall results of Obamacare have been underwhelming to date. Only about 20 to 30% of the expected rate of sign ups has been achieved and the bulk of that on the seperate state plans. All of the plans are seeing insurers dropping out (the worst case has to be Nebraska where it has gone from 9 participants to 1) primarily because they are recognizing that they will lose money staying in.

Let’s let the program roll out and then some facts will be available to discuss. Making hash of the current data is a waste of effort.

Don’t change the argument David. That is a Type I Progressive response. Does the HHS have solid figures on who and how many have signed up and purchased plans or don’t they?There is nothing hysterical or delusional about that..It is my understanding from evevything reported to date, and even from Obama’s own commentary in the Rose Garden earlier today that they either have no clue about the above or they won’t say because it is so bad.Either way it points to a disaster..As I have already pointed out, yes about half-a-million people (500,000 give or take) have registered on the federal website. That doesn’t equate to them having actually bought a policy. It just means they signed up on the sight.Actual buyers appear to be somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 but nobody seems to know or is willing to release those numbers so the above is a guess based on state plans and their sign ups.

Oh, for those interested a smaller insurance plan the government rolled out some years ago that has a lot of parallels to Obamacare is this one:.Ready Reserve Mobilization Income Insurance Program.It came out in 1996. What it did was for a monthly premium would pay out the difference between what someone made at their civilian employment and what they would make if activated. It relied on most reservists signing up; particularly many junior and mid-rank enlisted who likely would never see a payout on this.What happened was all the people with good civilian salaries like lawyers, doctors, engineers, and other highly paid professionals signed up in an instant. Those with so-so jobs or ones that pay was a wash either way, and those like college students and the like who actually profited by being in the reserve, ignored the program and wouldn’t pay in.Within a few years the program was deep in debt having paid out far more than it was taking in and the subsidy by the DoD was cost prohibitive for them.The program was ended shortly thereafter..This is similar to Obamacare where the most likely to sign up are the sick and those with expensive pre-existing conditions. Those in good health will simply ignore signing up as they see the program as prohibitively expensive and the “penality” as a cheaper alternative.So, the likely outcome in the near future will be that the cost of health insurance will rise to cover the influx of expensive sick people while no offsetting healthy sign up occurs. Then it gets worse. The government will have to subsidize all this and they will find the sources of income in Obamacare inadequite to cover that cost.The result is an economic death spiral to bankrupcy for Obamacare. It won’t be the first time the government put a totally idiotic program in place expecting people to be altruistic and do economicaly insane and costly things to their personal finances.

Progressive responses by type to a rational, factual, and polite argument that is in opposition to their position(s):

Type I: Change the argument. Switch subjects..Type II: The ad hominem or insult. Rather than address their opponet they insult them..Type III: Stomp off mad and refuse to respond to the opposition..There is a rare Type IV: This is the incoherent psychobabble. You don’t see this one very often..Typically Progressives move in order from a Type I to a Type III when they are being hit with an argument that makes their position(s) untenable..As for the Ready Reserve Mobilization Insurance Program that is cited from personal evidence as I was in the Reserve at the time and saw what happened. It was in the Navy Times news magazine that way too..http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/gao/ns97154.htm.That is the GAO discussion of its failure. And, you could have looked it up for yourself as I gave the program title accurately.

mm, failure: Why wasn’t EVERYONE in the Bush administration fired three weeks after his “Mission Accomplished” spiel and banner/

You better get used to it TM. I do not insult anyone with perjoritives like “conserva-trolls” or make ad hominems like “…propagandist minions…” in discussing things.I try deliberately to find neutral or even Left leaning sites and sources to fend off the oft made claim that the source is “biased.”By the by, your two responses are littered with examples of what I claimed…

It may be a covered injury but the President, the Senate, House of Representatives, businesses/unions that are friendly to the President, and some other govt. workers are exempt from Obamacare. They have their own, much better plans.

Covered my foot!

No, it wasn’t. And the ship’s return to port was delayed for that PR move. And since we’re talking about boondoggles and firing, how about the Star Wars program that never seems to die, and still doesn’t work?