The Patriot Post® · 16.4 Million Enrolled in ObamaCare? Not Exactly

The Department of Health and Human Services released new ObamaCare enrollment numbers on Monday, which claims “16.4 million adults have been added to health insurance rolls under the Affordable Care Act,” according to The Washington Post. But, given this administration’s penchant for deceit, it’s imperative to undertake a deeper inspection of its claims. And, lo and behold, the numbers aren’t exactly accurate. “To get to its 16 million number,” writes Investor’s Business Daily, “HHS uses Gallup poll data – not the Census Bureau’s far more comprehensive survey – for its calculations.” Moreover, economic turmoil plays a significant role in the uninsured rate, and “the administration conveniently overlooks the fact that those years of high uninsured rates were also when the economy was in the middle of Obama’s jobless recovery,” IBD notes. “A better comparison would be with the uninsured rate before the recession, not when it hit its peak during the slow recovery. If you do that, you see the recent drop is likely due to the economy, not ObamaCare.” As IBD points out, while it’s likely ObamaCare did have some positive effect – “there’s no reason to think ObamaCare’s $80 billion in subsidies didn’t contribute something to the decline,” after all – the point is that the government’s health industry takeover isn’t working quite as well as Democrats would have you believe: “[T]he real story here is that ObamaCare will spend $1.7 trillion more over the next decade, but only cover less than half the uninsured. There are better, less costly ways to tackle this problem.” More…