Remember a few weeks back when the administration lowered its own enrollment estimate? And remember how – at the time – I called 'em out on it? And how I bet no one would remember a month or so later when the administration suddenly met their goal?
Well, here we are.
How many of you would like to set your own sales goals every year? And, if things started to look tough, you could just change 'em? Think your manager would forget what your original forecast was? Or if she would care?
Course she would. Your manager (and hers, and his) are counting on those sales for revenue. And that revenue is what keeps your doors open, the lights on and the paychecks flowing.
So maybe that's why the feds take such a laissez-faire attitude with the spreadsheets when it comes to PPACA enrollment numbers. They're not making any money off these people. In fact, we (as in the federal budget) are probably taking a loss with each new enrollee.
Of course, the administration's run into a PR buzz saw lately, more preoccupied with finding out where all the cops are getting their "Get out of jail free cards," or whether the last of Gruber's consulting checks got dropped in the mail yet to make the media push they did last time around.
(And never mind all that troublesome torture business, which in a normal world would have drawn bipartisan condemnation. Which reminds me: How the hell did Congress agree to that huge remodeling project with the Capitol dome? My wife and I actually like each other and we can't even agree on comforters…)
So, after an abbreviated media tour, Obama and his team can now say they've crossed the finish line and haven't even broken a sweat.
("I was runnin'," as Tom Hanks once said.)
And yet we hear no one talking about the ghost town the SHOP exchanges have become? Or how reluctant carriers will be to play in the sandbox if and when GOP lawmakers strip the risk corridor program clean.
(Remember, kids, we only bail out banks now. Carriers can go to hell.)
But feds don't have the monopoly on changing the rules halfway through the game. New York State of Health leads the way this year in pushing back their deadline another week, from Dec. 15 to Dec. 22, blaming bad weather and maybe even Ebola, I'm not sure.
And, finally, speaking of pre-existing conditions, HHS inked a deal with that bastion of wellness, 7-Eleven, to try to get its customers to pick up some health care while they're laying down their paycheck on cigarettes and lottery tickets. God, I hope they push the high-deductible plans…
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