Hatch, Grassley Release Enrollment Data from Four Health Insurance Companies

WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa today released enrollment data from the four health insurance companies participating in the Washington, D.C., exchange set up via the President’s health care program. The Obama Administration has refused to provide enrollment numbers to the American people.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield: two enrollees from Oct. 1, 2013, through Oct. 30, 2013.

Kaiser Permanente: three enrollees from Oct. 1, 2013, through Oct. 31, 2013.

UnitedHealthcare: no enrollment data from the exchange as of Nov. 4, 2013.

Aetna: no enrollment data as of Oct. 24, 2013.

“With numbers like these, it's no wonder the Obama Administration hasn't wanted to release how many people have signed up for ObamaCare,” said Hatch. “With data from DC's four participating health plans in, there's been a whopping five people enrolled in the city’s exchange. That’s right five. Whether it's significant problems with the website, people being forced off the coverage they had or skyrocketing costs, these numbers are even more proof of what a disaster ObamaCare is and why it should be delayed.”

“A lot of Americans are getting cancellation notices from their current health care plan but they haven’t been able to enroll in a new plan,” Grassley said. “The limbo and uncertainty are stressful for them, as they’ve been describing in emails to my office. The chaos imposed on so many people is reason to at least delay the individual mandate, if not outright repeal it.”

On Oct. 24, 2013, Hatch and Grassley wrote to the four companies participating in the Washington, D.C., health care exchange. The Washington, D.C., exchange has four major plans and so provides a snapshot of how Americans fare in trying to join the new exchanges.

Hatch and Grassley said news reports show problems with what are called “834 forms” that contain individual information that insurers use to enroll the individual in a health care plan. Inaccurate or corrupted data would interfere with successful enrollment. That has implications for when the Administration should enforce the individual mandate requiring enrollment. It would be unfair to penalize people for not having health insurance when technical problems have impeded their enrollment, Grassley and Hatch said.

The responses the senators received are available here, here, here and here.

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