Glitch Fest 2013 - Obama To Rally The Troops For ObamaCare

Obama has a White House event scheduled for 11:35 eastern (so figure sometime around noon) to introduce the world to one of the hardest to find types of people...those who have signed up for ObamaCare.

He's going to make it sound like everything is just fine aside from a few minor glitches but the reality is much different. From The Morning Jolt by Jim Geraghty (sign up here for this free weekday newsletter).

19 million hits turned into nearly 500,000 applications. So about 2.6 percent of all hits turn into an application?

Note that over at EnrollMaven.com, they keep their eye on the prize, actual plan enrollment (which usually begins after the purchaser has sent the first check to pay for it). It doesn't measure "web hits, user registrations, applications started, applications completed or any other pre-enrollment parameter, does not include enrollments in jurisdictions which have not yet reported enrollment statistics (except confirmed registrations in states on the federal exchange) and does not count new Medicaid enrollees."

This morning they put the number of confirmed enrollees at . . . 19,790. Something in the neighborhood of the attendance of the average NBA or NHL game.

The other story will likely be "the state run exchanges are doing better". Yeah, not so much.

In New York, one of only 16 states that has its own exchange, not one person had succeeded in using the site to enroll in a plan as of Friday.

Donna Frescatore, director of the New York State of Health marketplace, said Friday that 134,000 people had registered and shopped on the state’s online health care site since its Oct. 1 launch, and thousands signed up to enroll in a plan.

But the state has repeatedly delayed electronically transmitting those users’ data to insurers offering health plans.

Of course the real number that counts isn't website hits, registrations, or even people who have enrolled in plans. No, the important number is how many young, healthy and stupid people have gotten a policy. No one seems to have heard of any of them actually existing. Without lots and lots of those types of customers, this whole thing comes crashing down.

But Obama will trot out 3 or 4 people who are getting coverage while ignoring the millions who will be losing their policies because of ObamaCare, even if they liked their plan.

“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.

An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices.

Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.

And don't forget about the 800,000 plus in New Jersey who are being kicked off their plan.

So on one hand, millions who can't keep their policy and on the other, the 19,000 or so who have gotten new coverage.

Where is the GOP messaging on this?

It's not like there aren't some good ideas floating around out there:

While we wait, here's the short, honest version of Obama's speech that you'll never hear:

posted by DrewM. at 11:25 AM

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