Pelosi says 9.5 million now covered thanks to O-care; Byron York has reality check

Ralph Health Care Policy

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http://twitter.com/#!/Steve_Jaye/status/450651452571021312

Nancy Pelosi is gushing today over an article in the LA Times:

http://twitter.com/#!/NancyPelosi/status/450650031679606784

Just last week, the Dems were rejoicing over a purported 6 million “enrollees.”

http://twitter.com/#!/PydePypper/status/450650783781228544

That’s quite a leap.

http://twitter.com/#!/ommfgr/status/450651700794122241
http://twitter.com/#!/winojanet/status/450651354550132736

Well, the Dems have made it quite clear that facts just aren’t important to them. But we’re open-minded. We’re willing to consider where this 9.5 million comes from.

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York took a closer look:

http://twitter.com/#!/ByronYork/status/450665102145257472

Read it and weep:

The Times says the numbers break down like this: 4.5 million previously uninsured people are now on Medicaid; 3 million previously uninsured young people are now covered because of a provision that allows them to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26; and 2 million previously uninsured have purchased coverage on the Obamacare exchanges. In all, it is “the largest expansion in health coverage in America in half a century,” according to the Times.

Assume all the numbers are correct, or at least close to correct. By far the largest part of Obamacare’s health coverage expansion has come from a) expanding Medicaid, and b) allowing young people to stay on their parents’ coverage. The part in which Democrats essentially blew up the health care markets, imposed the individual mandate, caused premiums to rise and deductibles to skyrocket? That hasn’t been such a success. If the Times number are correct, all of that — placing new burdens of higher costs and narrower choices on millions of Americans, in addition to setting the stage for coming changes in employer-based coverage — has resulted in two million previously uninsured gaining coverage.

http://twitter.com/#!/ByronYork/status/450665201030139904

So, according to York, if we go by the LA Times’ breakdown, only 2 million people (21 percent) of the previously uninsured 9.5 million gained coverage through Obamacare exchanges.

http://twitter.com/#!/seanagnew/status/450669427739361280

The number of people who have gotten screwed by Obamacare is much higher:

http://twitter.com/#!/cherilboyer/status/450652307542114305

Millions … and counting.

http://twitter.com/#!/jblanchard8012/status/450655053167067136

She’s just plain misinformed. And we’re paying for it.

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