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"Some Folks Lied" - How The Administration Fabricated Obamacare Enrollment Numbers
Two months ago, to much fanfare by the progressive community, HHS, if not Dr. Jonathan Gruber, were delighted to report that as of August 15, Obamacare enrolment had hit 7.3 million sign ups, well above the 7.0 million goal.
7.3 million people were signed up for Obamacare as of Aug 15 and paid their premiums, HHS says
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) September 18, 2014
Then a week ago we learned that "projection mistakes were made" after the "Obama administration revised its estimate for Obamacare enrollment, now saying - with the bruising midterms safely in the rearview mirror - that it expects some 9.9 million people to have coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges in 2015, millions fewer than outside experts predicted."
The administration said Monday that around 7.1 million people across the country who picked plans during the current year’s open-enrollment period were still paid up for their coverage. That’s down from the eight million who the administration said had picked plans as of this spring.
Fast forward to today when moments ago Bloomberg reported, that "the Obama administration included as many as 400,000 dental plans in a number it reported for enrollments under the Affordable Care Act, an unpublicized detail that helped surpass a goal for 7 million sign-ups."
In other words, "some folks lied" because without the dental plans, the government would have had 6.97 million people with medical insurance under Obamacare, investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform committee calculated, using data they obtained from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Blending dental and medical plans let the administration assert that enrollment remained greater than 7 million, the original projection of the Congressional Budget Office. The move also partly obscured the attrition of more than 1 million in the number of people enrolled in medical insurance.
The stunned administration, shocked at being caught in one after another lie, is scrambling to make up a credible story: "Kevin Griffis, a spokesman for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said he didn’t have a comment yet, hours after being asked for one."
Maybe they should just let Dr. Gruber explain it all to the dumb American public: after all the voters are so dumb, the difference between 6.9 million and 9.9 million is beyond confusing.
For some, it was clear the administration was about to rig the data:
The administration had supplied information about dental plans separately in earlier disclosures. In May, the government reported that 8 million were signed up for health plans and 1.1 million were in dental coverage.
Then in September, the numbers became less transparent. The Medicare agency’s administrator, Marilyn Tavenner, released a new enrollment figure, obtained from insurance companies participating in the exchanges: 7.3 million people were “enrolled in the health insurance marketplace coverage,” she said at a hearing by the Republican-led Oversight committee.
Tavenner didn’t elaborate or break out dental plans. Reporters asked a spokesman for her agency, Aaron Albright, for more detail about the number after the hearing: He said he had no additional information about it.
And now, some folks are "appalled"
“After touting 8 million initial sign-ups for medical plans, four months later they engaged in a concerted effort to obscure a heavy drop-out rate of perhaps a million or more enrollees by quietly adding in dental plan sign-ups to exchange numbers,” Republican Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the Oversight committee, said in an e-mail from a spokeswoman.
Charles Gaba, a Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based blogger who backs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and has accurately forecast enrollment, was among those who found Tavenner’s announcement encouraging. He had predicted enrollment would suffer attrition of about 3 percent per month; Tavenner’s figure suggested the rate was lower, only about 2 percent.
“This is FANTASTIC news,” he wrote at the time.
He said yesterday that he is “appalled” to find out dental plans were included in the figure.
And the absolute punchline via Bloomberg: "The 7 million threshold appears to be important for the administration, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a Washington advocacy group aligned with Republicans that has opposed the health law. “It’s a little weird,” Holtz-Eakin, a former CBO director, said. “Usually, the goal is for the forecast to hit the reality, but here the reality is being massaged to hit the forecast.”
Yes, just a little weird. "Instead of offering the public an accurate accounting, the
administration engaged in an effort to obscure and downplay the number
of dropouts,” Darrell Issa said. And consider this is the same administration whose media lackeys went apeshit on Jack Welch who, correctly, blasted the White House for fabricating employment data ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.
Because what we have yet again, is outright and very premeditated data manipulation and fabrication coming from the very top power echelons of the republic.
At least today Philly Fed "10 sigma" beat is the god's honest truth...
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Say it ain't so. They lied?
American peeps too stupid to realize it.
Some folks say thay's lyin' 'bout the number people infected (for real) with Ebola, too
Nice photo of Obama paying homage to the dark lord.
Some folks say thay's lyin' 'bout the number people employed for real, too
Is President Obama A Pathological Liar?http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/062012-615581-obama-tells-stori...
Stacked up, his whoppers would make even Bill Clinton blush. Here's a sampling:
Lie No. 1: Obama has repeatedly claimed his white grandfather, Stanley Dunham, "fought in Patton's army," when he was a clerk with no combat in WWII.
Lie No. 2: Obama claimed Dunham, a communist sympathizer, signed up for duty "the day after Pearl Harbor," when in fact he waited six months.
Lie No. 3: Obama claimed his father "fought when he got back to Kenya against tribalism and nepotism, but ultimately was blackballed from the government," when in fact he fought against capitalism and lost his job when he advocated communism.
Lie No. 4: Obama has claimed his late mother's health insurer refused "to pay for her treatment" for cancer while citing a "pre-existing condition," when Cigna paid all her hospital bills and never denied payment.
there's more.....
Since we're talking dental plans, how many were PDPs?
Was anyone expecting accurate and truthful reporting?
pods
"Obamacare enrolment had hit 7.3 million sign ups"
What they meant to say, the Obamacare website had 7.3 million hits.
they miss count 400,000 on 7 million....who fucking cares.......? what a waste of time
Reuters laying off 30% of their editorial staff, to focus on outsourced content is clearly going to improve investigative reporting standards & keep goverment accountable.
Anyone who believes the jolt, jobs or any white elephant for DNC fundraisers has either no market experience or 2.) is on the take.
meanwhile, haven't around 20 Million people LOST their coverage all together due to obamacare?
And hasn't everyone else who still has a plan through their companies had massive rate hike increases due to obamacare???
I can't afford health insurance now thanks to Obamacare. I have the audacity to make just enough money to not qualify for any subsidies while not actually making enough to actually be able to purchase the health insurance. I'd suck car exhaust until death before I ever took a government subsidy for anything.
I could have easily afforded health insurance prior to Obamacare. If you hold a gun to someone's head to force them to purchase something which direction do you think the price will go? I would venture up, up and away.
How many millions are in my situation? Plus, having the extra insult of having to pay a penalty on something I literally cannot afford.
Plus, it's a fucking fascist rip off.
And there is stil no data on enrollment by age group, numbers with a pre-existing condition and numbers who previously did not have insurance. My guess is that the younger age groups are low (They will just pay the "Fine"), pre-existing conditions and older age groups are high and very few had no prior coverage (Which was the whole point of Obamacare). If I am correct, expect to see premiums for 2015 go through the roof.
ANOTHER DAY .... ANOTHER LIE
It does eem somewhat less than the 40-50 million Haaahvahhhd & Keiser "healthcare anal-cysts" said were clamoring for health insurance coverage doesn't it?
The other 33 million or so must have died on the sidewalks before it could be shoved down their throats to save them ;-)
That's just Preezy's junior varsity lying.
The Obama Redemption.
Voter: You feel you've been rehabilitated?
Obama: Oh, yes sir. Absolutely, sir. Yeah, I've learned my lesson. I can honestly say that I'm a changed man. I'm no longer a danger to society. That's the God's honest truth.
Well, at least, “If you want to keep your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance.”
That much we know for sure.
And the average family will save about $2,500 off the cost of that health insurance. Yep, heard that one before, too.
(Note: If you are one of the MILLIIONS who became newly eligible for Medicaid because of Obamacare, this statement is actually true. For the rest of us, not so much.)
Its all so laughable. Deductibles are getting so high, that unless you have a major medical problem, you pay for everything out of pocket anyway.
Basically premiums and deductables are so high, the insurance isn't worth it. You might as well just save that money and use to to pay for ACTUAL health care. The problem with that is the fine/tax (whatever you want to call it) you are hit with. So basically, in order to increase tax revenue, the governemtn came up with a disaster of a health insurance program that noone in their right mind would want to participate in and than taxed you for not participiating.
Pelosi taken apart by David Gregory on false Obamacare promises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw3yoyIw3oM
And your doctor, you gets to keep him/her too! Wooot. Wooot!
Who the hell's left that would believe ANYTHING this administration says?
I know, I know. About 40% of the population. Damned sad state of affairs.
Well, not to worry, Obama's going to wipe his ass with the Constitution later tonight. Not on network TV, of course, but on Telemundo.
Do white people ever riot? I don't think they do. Well, OK, maybe if they're union members, but as a general rule I don't think white people riot. Like I said, damned sad state of affairs.
The only reason those 40% dont care, is because they are direct beneficiaries of his lies.
The ends justifies the means as Stalin, Hitler and Mao demonstrated, of course there was that pesky millions of innocents deaths problem.....
Coming down the path we are not set on.
The FEMA camp 'showers' are very hot.
They'll use the guillotines mostly to save energy, being green and all.
Problem? That's a solution.
...and I quote:
"Death solves problems. No man, no problem."
-Josef Stalin
If Presidents could be traded like hockey plays we'd not resign Obama and send him to Team Iran. There we could dress him up as the Ayatollah he wants to be. He has done such a magnificent job of financially destroying America, Iran would be a cake walk for the Thief in Chief..
We would then sign Putin for Team America even if it was expensive. He could clean out the dead wood out of all the levels of government.
If you think America is more free than Russia why are there so many Americans in jail / 1000 versus Russia?
Why do I get the feeling that tonight's 10-minute speech is 9 minutes and 50 seconds longer than what is needed to light this fuse? Coupled with a Ferguson Grand Jury timed release of the cop's acquital and we have a well co-ordinated detonation going off. I would not be surprised to hear a "Closed Gitmo" thrown in there too. In the next 48 hours, we will see the mettle of the Republican party, for if they fail, Choomboy will release the hounds.
The entire program was one huge lie to obscure the fact, that at the end of the day, all it is is the biggest tax increase Congress ever passed. That's all it is. the Chief Justice of the US SUpreme Court has stated just that. The individual mandate that you buy insurance by making a monthly "payment" for a"policy" -is of itself a lie.It has been declared a tax-regardless of the ruse required to jam it down American throats.
It is a lie because there is no judiciary or legislative body anywhere in the enire world, much less Washington DC that is about t force a definition of benefits required to be dispensed in return for payment of a tax. None. Nadda. Your benefits are about to become even more illusory than the numbers created out of whole cloth to sustain this fraud.
Tell me if politicians take as gospel truth anything their people tell them is true. Do we all just throw opinions around as fact now and spew them back as truth to the masses? Is that how it operates?
"Oh no, my people LIED to me. At least it's not MY fault." What a stupid thing to say. What do you expect when you hire a bunch of toady sycophants to work for you??
Wives and politicians - they all lie.
Who was the last President more destructive to the American way of life before Obama?
George W. Bush? Am I right? What did I win?
All 44 of them.
"I regret that I have only one upvote to give this comment." -- Me
Obama sez…”…Why’s everybody always pick’in on me…Ken’ya stop …I’m only a poor Emperor…”
The Sun King is never wrong......
You mean Ayatollah Obama Supreme Grand Leader?
I find Thief in Chief is shorter and more accurate.
Much more Rhymey too :)
numbers, er, statements are not lies ... if revised to reflect truth (or sorta close to it) later ... much later (ie: after market pump or congressional vote / election)
Ya know... Imagine if they fudged BLS monthly payroll numbers? Imagine. I know they would never do that. Now that would be wierd.
Obama can't count. Numbers mean nothing to him.
They expect people to "voluntarily" sign up by the end of the year due to the current threat of massive fines if they don't. ACA = IRS = UN = slavery.
Aim as high as you can.
I am going to voluntarily tell them to fuck off.
They claimed as late as 2013 there were as many as 48,000,000 uninsured, so less than 25% signed up, behold the affirmative action success. Diversity is definetly our weakness.
So how many Americans are still without a healthcare plan? 35-40 million?
Be nice to see an accurate number on that stat.
Um if 9 Million have signed up..
And 330 Million is the population of the US..
Then 321 Million have not or am I reading that wrong?
So like 3%.
ahh... you missed the part where "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
Some folks have insurance. The trick is once the employer exemption is lifted many workers will lose their plan and have to go to the marketplace or do without insurance (the new normal).
I am thinking of leaving the country and sneaking back across the border as a legal/illegal alien and scarf up all the goodies. /s
Just remember to tell the border agent, you are not an adult, and you are not from mexico ( nor the US) and all is good.
Deleated due to disgust.
No it's a lie no it's true no it's disgust.
Yes but out of the 7 million how many actually paid for health insurance? If you pick a plan with 100% reimbursement you still count as paid even if you don't pay a dime out of pocket.
The only people signing up are wackjob libs with money to burn and ghetto folk looking for a new subsidy.
And 1+1=3.
Corporate Subsidy dressed up as a Pig with Lipstick... but people still don't see it.
Like the don't see the Amnesty Bill is a Spending Bill.
Well, if its OK for Obama to lie to everyone for his own convience, we should have no reservations about returning the favor when it comes time to fill out our 1040's. Since everyone is now above the law, and trust is an inoperable concept in governance.
Lead by example, and you get the outcome you've demonstrated.
This asshole has claimed the right to murder any American, anywhere in the world (even domestically) at any time for any reason, with no evidence of a crime or any legal proceeding at all.
So where are all those flag waving Oath Keepers at? Hiding? Having a bake sale? Let me know when all those "checks and balances" come into play.
Agreed. What does it take to send an unequivocal signal that if the tyrants continue, they will face VERY disobedient, VERY naughty subjects? Would Obama need to stop by your home and rape your wife? Your child? WHAT DOES IT TAKE?!?
"So where are all those flag waving Oath Keepers at? Hiding? Having a bake sale?"
Hey I asked the same fuckin thing yesterday and got my ass chewed nice to see someone else wants to know whats up huh
Nobody is coming to save us. Not the "heroic soldiers" or any other fake assholes.
Revealed after the mid-term election. Wait until you see what is revealed after the 2016 election.
Lots of very smart people have commented on Obamacare - I think it's fair to say that it will increase costs, and harm the free market, and the fact that the numbers are/were bullshit should surprise few of the astute readers here.
But forget the economics for a moment and consider the legal ramifications of the individual mandate.
I'm unlibertarian enough to not hate the idea of universal coverage but never, ever thought the ACA was anything but a cash and power grab by Beltway insiders.
If the Congress calls it a tax, or even if they don't - they can punish you for buying or not buying anything that can be argued is for the general welfare.
That is astounding. We live in world where Supreme Court justices and Harvard Law professors can read the Constitution and opine that the federal government may command you to buy vegetables, that the President need not consult Congress when sending US troops to theatres having nothing to do with American national security, and that the 1st amendment's abrogation of any federal power to abridge the written or spoken word nevertheless allows the FEC to fine and jail people for making a political film if created or transmitted in any way by a legal entity called a corporation... such as the NY Times Co.
And yet the quasi-fascist takeover of 20% of the economy by .gov, while bad enough, is mere shadow of the potential dangers lurking in the SC decision which claimed that there is no longer any distinction between tax and penalty, and that the taxing power is wholly unconstrained by the Bill of Rights {to include the last 2}.
There is corollary in the immigration stuff and the speech tonight. The danger isn't so much 5 million Mexicans suddenly given the legal right to work at the stroke of a pen, the danger is what else such a pen will do if an whenever Congress refuses to OBEY King President - and those who pull upon his strings.
When does the {hopefully non-violent} revolution start? When police in riot gear finally make it to Westchester County and Greenwich and Orange County and Brookline?
Ahhh, you may thank Chief Justice Roberts. cast the deciding vote.
"We fooled some folks"
BAD WRITING. Those 400,000 dental plan signups still got the health insurance, right? Now it's an extra perk, not dental only?
Just another notch in my 'I don't want to pay one penny in fucking taxes this year' belt.
I mean what is the deal?
Fuck them all.
Of course they lied . Politicians are elected to lie on behalf of the electorate . Like a good lawayer .
But the present lot seems more like shysters embezzling the assets .
You are about 3 times richer than you think .
See
https://www.academia.edu/9405720/The_Economics_of_Disrespect_Update_I
or
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-economics-of-disrespect-update...
Note to Gruber: Try the fucking decaff.
So now TOTUS is going on TV with a Major National Policy he does NOT want Asians, blacks, or whites to see....
Since when did Honesty and Politics go hand-in-hand?
Not every liar is a politician, but all politicians are liars.
Now go vote so you feel like your opinion / vote actually matters.
Afterwards call the Electoral College so they can tell you to fuck off.
If this administration hadn't rigged the data, I'd be thinking something was wrong with Obama. I don't think there is a single thing he's done or said since before he began campaigning for the state senate in Illinois, that was entirely true. Its his nature to lie, and lying big is all the better in his value system.
'To tell you the truth, when legislation is seriously threatened, DON'T TELL THE TRUTH.'
It doesn't matter anymore. The Republicans are cowards and will not stop Obama. Just know that Obama's whole presidency is a lie.
Gruber is correct: these fucking liberals are fucking beyond dumb and should not be allowed to procreate.
And besides...even IF the enrollment numbers were correct....knowing what you know about human behavior, and that it is axiomatic that people work in their OWN SELF-INTEREST (that includes YOU FUCKING LIBERALS).....how many of these enrollees are taking more than they are giving? You gotta know that the overwhelming number of these obamanites are getting subsidies. It would be insane to buy overpriced insurance with a deductible that resembles a zip code.
I'm only glad the young and the unions who demanded this shit are getting fucked by higher costs.
Other than that...this is a complete fisaco.
Congress won't have to repeal it.
Mathematics will do it for them.
Of course people are gonna sign up for free shit!
It appears Obama and gov't types are the Bud Abbotts, while ZHers are the Lou Costellos. Maybe SNL should troll for good skit material here.