Obamacare will mark a net increase of 65 percent of the
Congressional Budget Office's original coverage projections for 2015, a new report shows, with numbers much lower than were initially estimated when Congressional Democrats passed the law in 2010.
At that time, the CBO had said the healthcare reform program would lead to an increase of 26 million people with health insurance by 2015,
reports The Weekly Standard. Those numbers would have included 15 million being added through Medicaid and 13 million through the Obamacare exchanges, and would have subtracted two million people who would have lost their private insurance plans after the law took effect.
But instead, the net increase is at 17 million, a total reached by adding 10 million through Medicaid and 11 million through Obamacare, and subtracting the four million who would have had private insurance, but don't because of Obamacare.
There are several reasons for the lower numbers, The Weekly Standard reports. Many people are not happy with compliant plans that come in with high deductibles but limited doctor networks, and have chosen to pay tax penalties rather than pay for high premiums. In addition, several would-be consumers were turned off by problems with the Obamacare exchange site, healthcare.gov.
The CBO also determined that most of the net coverage gains for Obamacare are coming from Medicaid recipients, at 59 percent of the net increase for 2015.
Another part of the reason for the lower numbers may be that 37 percent of the people who remained uninsured and were likely eligible for coverage were told they didn't qualify for covergae under the Affordable Care Act, a
Kaiser Family Foundation survey revealed earlier this year, meaning that more than 5 million people may have been steered away from obtaining insurance.
"While it is possible that they were ineligible at the time they applied, it is likely that these people received incorrect information or misinterpreted information they were given," the
Kaiser summary said.
Also, according to the Kaiser report, around 48 percent of about 30 million who remain uninsured are eligible for either Medicaid or private insurance subsidies under Obamacare.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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