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Health-Care Reform
How Not to Report on the Obamacare Numbers
Jonathan Bernstein
comments icon281 time iconMar 24, 2014 5:28 PM ET
By Jonathan Bernstein
Hey, reporters! If you’re planning to say anything about the Affordable Care Act's upcoming March 31 numbers, please, please, please read Drew Altman today for an important correction of two mistakes you may be about to make.
First, the total number of exchanges sign-ups: As Altman reminds us, the much ballyhooed 7 million number, adjusted to 6 million after the botched rollout, is a Congressional Budget Office estimate. Not an administration goal. Not what’s needed to make the exchanges work. Not a number that tells us what happens to premiums next year. The only thing one might be able to conclude from whether enrollments top that number or fall short of it would be the effect on the federal budget, which is interesting, but not what we really want to know in terms of ACA success or failure.
http://www.bloombergview.com/article...ers?cmpid=yhoo
How Not to Report on the Obamacare Numbers
Jonathan Bernstein
comments icon281 time iconMar 24, 2014 5:28 PM ET
By Jonathan Bernstein
Hey, reporters! If you’re planning to say anything about the Affordable Care Act's upcoming March 31 numbers, please, please, please read Drew Altman today for an important correction of two mistakes you may be about to make.
First, the total number of exchanges sign-ups: As Altman reminds us, the much ballyhooed 7 million number, adjusted to 6 million after the botched rollout, is a Congressional Budget Office estimate. Not an administration goal. Not what’s needed to make the exchanges work. Not a number that tells us what happens to premiums next year. The only thing one might be able to conclude from whether enrollments top that number or fall short of it would be the effect on the federal budget, which is interesting, but not what we really want to know in terms of ACA success or failure.
http://www.bloombergview.com/article...ers?cmpid=yhoo