Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Day One of Obamacare’s Exchanges, By the Numbers

Obamacare’s exchanges have now been “open” (such as it is) for more than 24 hours. The results are in, and they’re not promising:

0—Enrollment navigators certified in Wisconsin in time for the start of enrollment.

0—Individuals one North Carolina insurer was able to sign up for subsidized insurance.

3—Months President Obama warned Americans could face glitches when trying to sign up.

4—Hours Maryland’s exchange opening was delayed.

7—Miles one Indiana resident drove to obtain enrollment assistance; after receiving little information and a four-page paper application, the potential applicant called the trip “a waste of time.”

22—Actual enrollees in Connecticut’s exchange out of more than 10,000 individuals who visited the website by mid-afternoon, a conversion rate of 0.22 percent.

34—Minutes one Politico reporter listened to “smooth jazz” before reaching an actual call-center representative.

35­—Minutes one MSNBC reporter spent attempting to enroll online, before finally giving up.

47—States whose exchange websites “turned up frequent error messages.”

1,289—Days between the signing of Obamacare and yesterday’s launch, a gap which prompted one insurance broker to comment, “You would just think that with all this time they’ve had to get it set up and ready to go there would have been a better premiere.”

2,400—Individuals who had their Social Security numbers and other personal data disclosed even before the exchanges opened for business.

Not only were the American people faced with major glitches surrounding the exchanges, but they also faced a wall of silence from bureaucrats when looking for explanations for the delays.

The latest in a long line of Obamacare implementation glitches and failures demonstrates how the law is inherently unworkable. It’s why Congress needs to stop Obamacare now.

This post was originally published at The Daily Signal.