WaPo:
Thirty-five percent of people who enrolled through the federal marketplace are under the age of 35.”
– President Obama, news conference, April 17, 2014
The Fact Checker was on break last week, but did manage to pass a TV set that aired images of the president’s announcement on April 17 that 8 million people had signed up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. We were struck by a headline in the TV ticker that amplified the president’s message that 35 percent of the enrollees were younger than 35.
Why is that important? The “young invincibles” are considered a key to the health law’s success, since they are healthier and won’t require as much health care as older Americans. If the proportion of young and old enrollees was out of whack, insurance companies might feel compelled to boost premiums, which some analysts feared would lead to a cycle of even fewer younger adults and higher premiums. (There is also adissenting viewpoint about the importance of this figure.)
But some readers cried foul, saying the president highlighted a misleading number in his news conference. The young invincibles are between the ages of 18 and 34 — and as White House “fact sheet” acknowledged, that figure is 28 percent. The 35 percent figures includes children under the age of 18.
So what’s going on here?
The Facts
Last summer, in background briefings for the media, the administration set an ambitious goal: 40 percent of the enrollees would be between the ages of 18 and 34. That added up to 2.7 million of the anticipated 7 million enrollees.
But the early numbers for Affordable Care Act were a bit grim, as reporters homed in on the percentage of enrollees between 18 and 34. In February, as the percentage edged up from 24 percent to 27 percent, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius touted what she called a “65 percent rate of growth.” (She was counting the increase in the raw number of young-invincible enrollees.) But the percentage stayed stuck at 27 percent in March.
So you can see why there might be some excitement about a figure of 35 percent, as it sounded rather close to the original 40 percent goal. Indeed, the 35 percent figure was first spread a few hours before the president’s remarks by state insurance commissioners, who had met privately with the president at the White House.
“They shared the 35 percent under 35, but no details on that number, and they did not disclose the 18-34 (28 percent) figure during the meeting,” said an official with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
In other words, the stage was set for reporters to zero in on the under-35 number when the president cited it at the start of his news conference.
Here are some media accounts from that day:
Obama’s a liar. Who could have known?
@drjohn: Well, experience helps.
Obamacare deals blow to one-doctor medicine
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/26/obamacare-deals-blow-to-one-doctor-medicine/
My wife was window shopping plans available on our state’s exchange site. She ignored all the Medicaid plans because neither of us wanted to sign up for Medicaid. Eventually she found a plan outside of the exchange to go with.
The very week that Obama announced that they had 7.1 million sign-ups, she received a Medicaid healthcare coverage card in the mail from the State. It seems that even though my wife had not signed up for Medicaid, someone in the state government signed her up without her knowledge. She called to find out what the heck was going on and told them that she had already purchased an independent health care plan that met the ACA’s requirements a month prior. She was told that it was “just an error” and that they were cancelling her enrollment in Medicaid. immediately.
We are both very suspicious that she is not the only person this happened to.
Boy, you’re not safe from activists anywhere.