Obamacare Enrollment and Low Expectations
The infamous bungled launch of HealthCare.gov came exactly a year ago. While this year’s open enrollment doesn’t start until Nov. 15, administration officials, mindful of last year’s “debacle,” are already working to lower expectations.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell declined, when speaking with reporters last week, to endorse the Congressional Budget Office’s enrollment target of 13 million participants in insurance exchanges next year. She also declined to say when a new target might be announced.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the administration is seeking to tamp down expectations. This year’s open-enrollment period starts later than last year’s did; it runs for only three months, compared with six in 2013; and it falls in the middle of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. When it comes to enrollment and outreach, most of the “low-hanging fruit“–individuals with a strong desire to purchase health insurance–have already signed up.
The fact that this year’s open-enrollment period is also the first Obamacare re-enrollment period will also drive traffic to the online exchanges–and could create confusion. Even advocates of the law have talked about the “massive technological challenges” associated with such an effort. And individuals who do not actively re-enroll through HealthCare.gov and choose instead to remain in their 2014 plans through 2015 could face significant premium increases.
President Barack Obama came into office hoping to restore Americans’ faith in government. Yet last fall the federal government’s ability to provide basic functionality to a Web site was viewed as nothing short of miraculous, and this fall the administration has declined to say whether 2015 insurance enrollment will meet expectations. The administration appears to be hoping that Obamacare will benefit from low expectations–and that in itself says a lot about the status of President Obama’s legacy.
This post was originally published at the Wall Street Journal Think Tank blog.