ALOHA, WE THINK – AT 9:12 A.M. ET: The annals of Obamacare are being written. The one in Hawaii may, if things continue, be distributed in a plain wrapper. Things aren't good. The question is whether this disaster is being repeated widely. From Americans for Tax Reform:
Despite over $205 million in federal taxpayer funding, Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down. Since its implementation, the exchange has somehow failed to become financially viable because of lower than expected Obamacare enrollment figures. With the state legislature rejecting a $28 million bailout, the website will now be unable to operate past this year.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the Hawaii Health Connector will stop taking new enrollees on Friday and plans to begin migrating to the federally run Healthcare.gov. Outreach services will end by May 31, all technology will be transferred to the state by September 30, and its workforce will be eliminated by February 28.
While the exchange has struggled since its creation, it is not for lack of funding. Since 2011 Hawaii has received a total of $205,342,270 in federal grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In total, HHS provided nearly $4.5 billion to Hawaii and other state exchanges, with little federal oversight and virtually no strings attached.
Despite this generous funding, the exchange has underperformed from day one. In its first year, Hawaii enrolled only 8,592 individuals – meaning it spent almost $23,899 on its website for each individual enrolled. Currently over 37,000 individuals are enrolled in Hawaii’s exchange - well below the estimated 70,000 enrollees that is required to make the website financially viable. Unfortunately, taxpayers will have to hand out an additional $30 million so that Hawaii can migrate to the federal system.
This is not the first time that a state exchange has failed, and taken millions of dollars in federal funds down with it. Earlier this year, Oregon’s state exchange was officially abolished at an estimated cost of $41 million.
COMMENT: You'd think the mainstream media would consider Obamacare, our first experiment with nationalized health service for everyone, a major, continuing story. But we actually read little about it. Support for the program among voters has increased. But that may be due to the politicized manner in which Obamacare is being introduced – increased services up front, costs and taxes later on. The classic credit-card mentality.
I get the feeling that the first recognizable crisis in Obamacare will be funding, and not far behind will be the quality of care, especially for the elderly. Will there be "death panels," as Sarah Palin predicted? Oh, sure, but they won't be called that. They'll be called "intelligent choice" programs. Except that the choices will be made by the government, and granny might not be happy.
May 13, 2015 |