Allah:
Via CNS and BuzzFeed, an egregious lie even by the administration’s usual standards for ObamaCare, which is saying something. In fact, this lie, that Sebelius herself never embraced the seven-million figure she’s now trying to pawn off on CBO, was exposed nearlytwo months ago by one of the biggest papers in the country — and here she is, two months later, still pushing it to try to cover her ass. Quote:
Here’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaking to reporters last June: “We’re hopeful that 7 million is a realistic target.”
And here she is on Sept. 30, in an interview with NBC News: “I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014.”
Moreover, on Sept. 5, 2013, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sent Sebelius a memo titled, “Projected Monthly Enrollment Targets for Health Insurance Marketplaces in 2014.”
The memo offered an estimate of 7,066,000, drawing both on CBO’s estimate and the experience of the universal health plan in Massachusetts, Medicare Part D “and conversations with employers, issuers and states.” It projected that enrollment would be 3.3 million by the end of December.
WaPo gave her just two Pinocchios out of four for distancing herself from the “seven million” figure back in January even though she (a) had adopted that number months earlier and (b) already was (and still is) exaggerating the total number of O-Care sign-ups by refusing to say how many are facing cancellation due to not having paid their first month’s premium. By most estimates, that number is in the ballpark of 20 percent. If that trend continues all the way to the March 31st deadline, hitting the magic “seven million” number would mean that the official numbers were padded with more than a million busted enrollments.
Three clips for you, in order: Today’s big lie; Sebelius telling NBC on September 30th of last year that seven million is the target; and then, just for fun, Jay Carney trying to spin his way out of this clusterfark last month.
Lying must be this administration’s foremost job requirement. 🙂
More puzzling, at least to me, is why the administration considers a new enrollee into Medicaid as being a success story of Obamacare. There’s plenty of poor and working class people who do not want to be in Medicaid at all (period). As a matter of fact, doctors are refusing to accept new Medicaid patients or continue to see existing Medicaid patients because of the low reimbursement rates – much like Medicare-age patients.
It is remarkable to see how these awful people lie to our faces.
4 million as of today. Game over, wingnuts. Lol!
If you’re a Democrat, there is no such thing as telling a lie anymore.
You can say whatever you want.
If anyone notices it’s not true, then you misspoke.
Unless you’re a Republican, in which case you are a liar who should resign immediately.
David Horowitz Exposes Why Progressives Must Lie
@This one: If my calculations are correct, 4 million is not 7 million AND no one can even tell how many of those 4 million even HAVE insurance.
Oh, and 6 million have been kicked off their existing insurance already. So, there’s that, too.
It’s not far-fetched to suggest, and to believe, the administration are pulling numbers out of thin air. No one really knows how many actually bought and paid for an Obamacare plan, what the age group distributions are, etc. We are, somehow, supposed to take their word. Even their Medicaid enrollment numbers are suspect, and the administration has taken credit for Medicaid re-qualifications as “success stories”.
Here in Colorado, there are stories circulating that Obamacare “enrollments” have been stagnant for several weeks. Also, the state exchange doesn’t know how many have signed up – those who are actually paying insurance premiums and how many are new Medicaid enrollees.
I lived in Kansas when sebelius was insurance commissioner and then governor. She was a crappy government worker then and she is now. I guess she is the stereotype that people talk about when they are talking about worthless government workers.
September 2013 was the time period when she made the statement.