The folks at CNBC aren't known for being wild-eyed crazy Teeeeee-Party, 'baccy-chewin', cousin-marryin', mouth-breathin', Newt-lovin', Neanderthals: i.e., in the eyes of Obama, anyone who thinks this whole ObamaCare thing is not a great idea.
So, when they have this to report, it may be worth reading:
First, the bad news:
As few as 1 in 100 applications on the federal exchange contains
enough information to enroll the applicant in a plan, several insurance
industry sources told CNBC on Friday. Some of the problems involve how
the exchange's software collects and verifies an applicant's data.
"It is extraordinary that these systems weren't ready," said Sumit
Nijhawan, CEO of Infogix, which handles data integrity issues for major
insurers including WellPoint and Cigna, as well as multiple Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates.
Experts said that if Healthcare.gov's
success rate doesn't improve within the next month or so, federal
officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large
numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but
whose enrollment applications are have not been processed.
This, folks, is a formula for chaos, with thousands of patients hitting the door of the doctor's office needing care, claiming to be covered, because after all, they signed up, or were signed up they think, for ObamaCare. Think about it. How many people do you encounter at the local fast-food joint, the convenience store, pass by on the road as they man the traffic flag at a construction zone, etc. A lot of these folks struggled to get through high school, or didn't manage to. Now, they are adults, struggling to survive, and they need medical care! They are just as human, just as deserving to not live in chronic pain, or with untreated diabetes or cancer, as any university president. They go through the struggles to attempt to sign up, think they've done it, but information is missing, or the miserably designed system malfunctions, or their application is lost by an insurer, or, or, or....
The Really Bad News:
One insurer reported a better, but still stunningly low, rate of
enrollment applications containing enough data to process for coverage.
"It's about half of what we've received," a source at that insurer said.
"We're
getting incomplete data—about half of the applications we haven't been
able to process," said the source, who used the term "corrupted" to
describe the batch of applications received.
Which means, in real terms, that applicants will have to be contacted individually to complete applications (how many employees, how many hours, who pays for them?), sending them back to the starting gate in many cases. And, remember, the system has already proven it cannot handle traffic...
The Really Really Bad News:
Experts said that if the lag in processing enrollments continues on
a large scale, insurers expect the federal government to tell them that
they must provide benefits to people even as applications are still
being processed.
"In talking to some of the insurers, they
pretty much assume that even if there are issues, the feds will say,
'You know what, it's your problem, they've signed up,' " said Koritala.
In other words--insurers will be compelled to pay claims on patients that may or may not actually be included in their coverage! Hmmm....at what point will they be able to say 'No' to patients who never complete their applications, or imaginary patients created by dishonest providers, or patients created by identity theft, or patients who never pay premiums because they don't know their coverage status, or....
And, who pays for this? Where does the cash flow come from to actually issue paychecks to all those employees hired to complete those enrollments, and claim checks to all those providers?
Now, let's contrast these facts with Massah Obama's comments last week that Republicans don't want Americans to have health care, heartless souls that they are.
If someone were to devise a system designed to bring health care to a halt for everyone in the country, it would look like the Byzantine disaster that Duh Prez insisted be launched last week.
Yes, the US could really use an efficient, sane, cost-effective way of making sure as many people as possible have health care that doesn't bankrupt their families.
And no, ObamaCare is not the means to accomplish this. That's what we wild-eyed crazy Teeeeee-Party, 'baccy-chewin', cousin-marryin', mouth-breathin', Newt-lovin' Neanderthals have been saying all along.
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