Biden: Coming in 2 Million Short on Obamacare Would Be "a Hell of a Start"

Speaking in
Minnesota, Vice President Joe Biden talked up Obamacare’s
enrollment problems, including the program’s awful start and
lagging enrollments. Not to worry,
the VP said:

Biden acknowledged that “we may not get to 7 million, but if we
get to 5 or 6 million that’s a hell of a start.”

In total, nearly 3.3 million had enrolled through the end of
January. That’s about 75 percent of what the administration had
hoped to achieve by that point in the open enrollment period.

Channeling the wisdom he learned over years of
occasionally plagiarizing other people’s life stories, Biden
also offered up this defense of the program’s rollout:

“We didn’t want this to start off as shaky as it did,” he said.
“But it’s complicated.”

Yes, it is, Joe. Yes, it is.

Whole thing here.

Let’s assume that the program only enrolls 5 million in the
individual markets. Let’s further assume that the demographic mix
of those people isn’t the acturial balance needed to keep costs the
way they were predicted. What happens next? At what point does “a
hell of a start” just turn into a hell of a program? Find answers
in Reason’s ongoing Obamacare coverage.

Via Reason 24/7.

In 2009, Reason TV celebrated “Joe Biden: Real Man of
Genius.”