Federal health insurance plan sign-ups pass 1 million mark - By JOSH LEDERMAN

Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes. My comments in bold.

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Here's the latest happy-face by the AP. It is astonishing to me how far the "objective" news media will go to cover for the Obama administration.

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Combined with state-run markets total enrollment in private plans stands at about 2 million, about two-thirds of original goal

HONOLULU (AP) — The government’s rehabilitated health insurance website ("Rehabilitate: to bring someone or something back to a normal, healthy condition." You know, words mean things. They impart information. They either illuminate or obfuscate. Clearly, "rehabilitate" is a word chosen to muddy the waters. We all know that the website is a patched-up mess that still does not function fully or properly. We all know that it was a failure from the get-go. We all know that it is a nightmare to use. We all know this, yet the AP spins, with a single word, the reality of the situation.) has seen a December surge in customer sign-ups, pushing enrollment past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration says. Combined with numbers for state-run markets, that should put total enrollment in the new private insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s health law at about 2 million people through the end of the year, independent experts said. (Unnamed "independent experts." No mention of how many in that number are medicaid signups. No mention of how many are paid enrollees.)

That would be about two-thirds of the administration’s original goal of signing up 3.3 million by Dec. 31, a significant improvement given the technical problems that crippled the federal market during much of the fall. The overall goal remains to enroll 7 million people by March 31. (I just don't get these numbers. Remember how the Left and the media trumpeted the horrifying 52 million uninsured? How does 7 million get anywhere close to what is supposedly needed? And why, with a crisis of this magnitude, is the number of signups greeted with what can only be described as ambivalence?)

“It looks like current enrollment is around 2 million despite all the issues,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. “It was a very impressive showing for December.” (Mr. Mendelson is an inside guy, hardly an objective voice.)

The administration said that of the more than 1.1 million people now enrolled in the federal insurance exchange, nearly 1 million signed up in December. The majority came days before a pre-Christmas deadline for coverage to start in January. Compare that with a paltry 27,000 in October, the federal website’s first, error-prone month.

“We experienced a welcome surge in enrollment as millions of Americans seek access to affordable health care coverage,” Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a blog post announcing the figures. The numbers don’t represent a full accounting for the country.

The federal website serves 36 states. Yet to be reported are December results from the 14 states running their own sites. Overall, states have been signing up more people than the federal government. But most of that has come from high performers such as California, New York, Washington state, Kentucky and Connecticut. Some states continue to struggle.

Still, the end-of-year spike suggests that the federal insurance marketplace is starting to pull its weight. The windfall comes at a critical moment for Obama’s sweeping health care law, which becomes “real” for many Americans on Jan. 1 as coverage through the insurance exchanges and key patient protections kick in.

The administration’s concern now shifts to keeping the momentum going for sign-ups, and heading off problems that could arise when people who’ve already enrolled try to use their new insurance.

“They’ve got the front end of the system working really well,” said insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski. “Now we can move on to the next question: Do people really want to buy this?” He also estimated 2 million will probably be enrolled this year. (Yes, we finally arrive at a contrary voice. He acknowledges that the website's front end works, and as we read further we find that there are still substantial problems.)

The fledgling insurance exchanges are online markets for subsidized private coverage. Obama needs millions of mostly younger, healthy Americans to sign up to keep costs low for everyone. Open enrollment runs until the end of March. ("Obama needs?" What? Doesn't the system need young, healthy Americans? And by the way, the reason the system needs these people is because they are going to subsidize the old, sick Americans who are guaranteed coverage, even with pre-existing conditions. But young also tend to be on the low end of the earnings scale, so they will likely receive subsidies. In actual fact, it is middle class Americans that will be left holding the bill on this.)

Tavenner said fixes to the website, overhauled to address widespread technical problems, contributed to December’s figures. But things haven’t totally cleared up. (Rehabilitated. Overhauled. But still not "cleared up...) Thousands of people wound up waiting on hold for telephone help on Christmas Eve for a multitude of reasons, including technical difficulties.

“We have been a little bit behind the curve,” acknowledged Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, whose state has the highest proportion of uninsured residents. (A little bit? Understatement of the year.)

“Obamacare is a reality,” conceded (Conceded? Of course it's a reality. No one has been holding out for denying its reality. Again, the word is chosen to obfuscate, mislead, or mischaracterize.) one of the law’s opponents, Rep. Darrell Issa, RCalif., who as House oversight committee chairman has been investigating the rollout problems. However, he predicted it will only pile on costs.

“The fact that people well into the middle class are going to get subsidies is going to cause them to look at healthcare...sort of in a Third World way of do we get subsidies from the government for our milk, for our gasoline and, oh, by the way, for our healthcare,” said Issa.

For consumers who successfully selected one of the new insurance plans by Dec. 24, coverage should start on New Year’s Day. That’s provided they pay their first month’s premium by the due date, extended until Jan. 10 in most cases. (Um, yeah. And why, pray tell, has that deadline been extended? Because the website's billing system doesn't work! Please, AP, tell us the whole truth! This article is multiple paragraphs. Can't you spend SOME time discussing the full story in an article of this length?)

But insurers have complained that another set of technical problems, largely hidden from consumers, has resulted in the government passing along inaccurate data on enrollees. With a flood of signups that must be processed in just days, it remains unclear whether last minute enrollees will encounter a seamless experience if they try to use their new benefits come Jan. 1. (So, how many of the enrollees are in this category? Should they be counted as successful enrollees if their coverage in actual fact cannot be verified?)

The White House says the error rate has been significantly reduced, (Rehabilitated, overhauled.) but the political fallout from website woes could pale in comparison with the heat that Obama might take if Americans who signed up and paid their premiums arrive at the pharmacy or the emergency room and find there’s no record of their coverage. (It's all about Obama. His "Signature Achievement" is in peril! Who will defend our president from the heat he might experience due the the failure of his plan? Oh, and about those people whose claims are not getting paid? Pay no attention to them. They don't matter.)