New Study: 73% Of Obamacare Enrollees Already Had Insurance

A new study, by McKinsey and Company demonstrates that the vast majority of people signing up for Obamacare (73%) already had health insurance before Obamacare.  Using the president's 4 million sign-ups to date figure, this translates to  a little more than one million people are new to health care.   Obamacare was sold as bringing insurance to 20-40 million uninsured Americans.

Additionally the study found found that around 75 percent of those who had selected a plan also paid their premiums. Which lowers the one million figure described above to around 800,000 people actually signed up  who never had insurance before, much less than the original projections.

Other findings

•  In total, 10 percent of all previously uninsured February respondents said that they had enrolled in a product, up from 3 percent in January.

• More than three-quarters of those who reported having obtained coverage also said they had paid their premium (out of all February respondents who said they had selected a new 2014 product, i.e., insured who switched or uninsured who enrolled). The payment rate was higher among the previously insured (86 percent) than among the previously uninsured (53 percent).

•  A smaller proportion of the respondents who had not yet enrolled reported that they are likely to enroll, compared to prior surveyed months. However, most (65 percent) of those who said that they intend to enroll continue to be the previously uninsured.

• The most common reason for not enrolling cited by both previously insured and previously uninsured respondents continues to be perceived affordability challenges (this was cited by ~50 percent of the respondents who had not yet enrolled).

• Over 80 percent of the respondents who cited affordability as the reason for not enrolling are eligible for subsidies; 66 percent of these consumers were not aware of their subsidy eligibility status or subsidy amount. 

Each day the  president's signature program is looking more and more like a failure.