Obamacare: 6.17 Million Lost Insurance, Just 4.2 Million Have Selected New Plans

Obamacare was supposed to be about insuring the uninsured, but so far the impact of the law seems to be a net reduction in the number of Americans insured. Nearly 6.2 million Americans lost their pre-Obamacare insurance policies as the law has been implemented. So far, just 4.2 million have selected new policies through the Obamacare exchanges:

Some 4.2 million people enrolled in health-care plans using government portals as of last month, the Obama administration said Tuesday, leaving millions more sign-ups needed this month to meet the Affordable Care Act’s enrollment targets.

Around 943,000 people picked plans in February, down slightly from 1.14 million who chose plans in January, a decrease that federal officials attributed to February’s shorter length.

That 4.2 million number is suspect. Just 27 percent of the people selecting plans were previously uninsured, a troublingly low number given that insurers were counting on a major influx of uninsured Americans into the risk pool to offset the expense of mandated expansions in coverage. The 4.2 million number itself is just 60 percent of what the Obama administration projected, and we have no idea how many of these people who have selected an insurance policy have actually gone on to purchase it and thus become insured.

We don’t know because the Obama administration isn’t telling us.

Meanwhile, President Obama would like you to know that Obamacare isn’t that expensive, and if you can’t afford it you should cancel your telephone service or something.

Update: Author John Lott Jr. points out on Twitter that many of the 4.2 million who have signed up for Obamacare had insurance previously.