North Dakota Gets Just A Fraction Of Expected Obamacare Signups

Nationally Democrats are crowing about a roughly 7.5 million enrollment number for Obamacare. Whether or not that number is an accomplishment worth celebrating is a matter for debate, but here in North Dakota there’s no question that the law’s impact has been pretty dismal.

At WatchDog.org I have an article up today talking about the few effectuated enrollments in North Dakota, based on numbers from the North Dakota Insurance Commissioner’s office, as compared to the predictions:

As of April 1, insurance companies offering policies through the federal exchange in North Dakota combined for 3,707 effectuated policies covering 6,110 lives.

These numbers for all three companies fall far short of expectations. The Obama administration has estimated 68,403 people in North Dakota were uninsured and eligible for enrollment through the exchange. Hamm’s office reported previously that 35,585 North Dakotans were pushed off their existing individual insurance plans by Obamacare last year.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota had 2,495 effectuated policies covering 4,338 lives
Medica had 672 effectuated policies covering 868 lives
Sanford had 540 effectuated policies covering 904 lives

Meanwhile, by way of explaining the slow enrollments, consider that Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act) isn’t very affordable. The map above, created by the Heritage Foundation, shows that North Dakota is one of 19 states where insurance premiums are more than 10 percent higher under Obamacare for a family of four.

In North Dakota, premiums are 32 percent higher, specifically.

Things aren’t much better for younger North Dakotans, who are part of the young and healthy demographic Obamacare desperately needs to enroll to avoid more premium hikes in the future. For the average 27 year old citizen the premium hike in North Dakota is 117 percent: