Between October 2013 and March 2014 8 million people signed up for the new government backed health insurance plan, Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. While this may seem like a good number, when you compare it to the United States total population, 318 million, Obamacare applicants only applied for two and a half percent of the population.
“More people had their NCAA bracket busted in the first four hours of the NCAA Basketball Tournament this year than signed up for Obamacare.” Steven Buttice, founder and president of Medical Reimbursement and Management Services Inc (MRMS-Inc), a company designed to help people find apply for programs such as Medicare and health insurance.
“While there was success at getting some of the uninsured people insured under ACA (Affordable Care Act), about 50% of the 8 million were rolled over from Medicaid, about two-million from private insurance plans. I believe makes some much needed changes in health insurance, but in my opinion falls far short of the numbers needed to apply to meet the way it was budgeted,” Buttice said.
Buttice also helped those who were interested apply for the affordable care act and also gave seminars on the topic.
“The application process is lengthy and confusing to most who want to apply. Help is available, and the level of information they can provide and their expertise can vary,” Buttice said of the application process. He continued, “People have selected companies and plans not including their doctors or have restrictions on their drugs.”
When breaking down applicant numbers state by state we see that California was the only state with over one million registered. Not surprising considering that the state has the largest population in the United States. State population does not automatically mean a high number of people registered. The third most registered state, Texas, had 733,573 applicants while New York, the fourth, sat at 370,451. Creating a 400,000-person gap between the two places.
Quickly, it became obvious that sorting the number registered was not going to give any surprising data. A majority of the top ten highest populated states in the country were located in this list. So, instead of looking at just the number registered it is best to divide that number by the total population of the state, showing what percent of the state applied. Surprisingly, California is no longer the top state on the list. Taking its place is Vermont with 6% of the population applied. We asked Steven Buttice what he thinks the reasoning for it might be, he believes it might possibly be due to a lack of employer health insurance, but is not certain.
Top 10 States With Highest Population Percentage of Applicaticants
Top Ten States: 1)Vermont, 2)Florida, 3)Idaho, 4)California, 5)North Carolina,
6)Montana, 7) Maine, 8)Georgia, 9)New Hampshire, 10)Utah
The Affordable Care Act is far from being flawless. Steven Buttice details some of the changes needed in order to make the plan more appealing to those in need, and raise the number of applicants.
“Insuring people with health conditions has raised the ACA rates considerably over pre-ACA rates. Mostly affected by higher premiums are the young people because the 64 year old pays no more than three times what a 20-year (old) would pay,” Buttice said continuing, “The ACA needs young, healthy people to make the numbers work to keep the premiums lower.”
The yearly sign up period ended early in the year. It will only be a matter of time before we find out whether or not this year faired better for the affordable care act.
*Data taken from the following source.