The White House was all smiles yesterday after announcing more than 7,000,000 Americans had successfully signed up for health insurance before the March 31 “deadline.” Of course, that figure is a “phony number,” as Dr. Charles Krauthammer opined on Fox News last night, but that doesn’t really matter. The point is that the White House had an opportunity to celebrate something -- and celebrate they did.
In the clip, Fallon digs the White House for congratulating themselves prematurely for reaching their “enrollment goal.” But what about the millions of people who tried to obtain coverage, and couldn’t? Fallon estimates that number to be in the tens of millions. He then added this zinger:
“[It’s] amazing what you can achieve when you make something mandatory, and fine people if they don’t do it -- and keep extending the deadline for months.”
Exactly. Perhaps Fallon should have also noted that the White House’s top-line enrollment figure is bogus because we don’t know how many Americans paid their first month’s premiums -- a condition for being successfully enrolled in the system. What’s more, how many of these 7.1 million enrollees had insurance, lost their coverage, and now find themselves paying for more expensive and less desirable plans? Carol reported earlier that the real enrollment number is almost certainly much lower than what the White House is telling us. Surprise.