Shuffling health insurance around

2014

Forbes is reporting that a yet to be released RAND study indicates only 1/3 of the Obamacare exchange enrollees were previously uninsured. In addition, an earlier McKinsey study noted that only 27% of the individual market enrollees were previously uninsured.

This means that about 70% of the millions claimed as signing up for health insurance already had health insurance, some of which was cancelled as the result of the ACA. The new individual market insurance may well be more expensive given the ACA mandates and other requirements. 💰

If these studies prove accurate, it also means that millions of Americans who had health insurance now have health insurance that is subsidized by other Americans (and in many cases with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs and smaller networks of providers). 💧

You can draw your own conclusions about what’s working and not working, what is affordable and how we define success. It just seems a little early for pats on the back.