We have a fairly solid idea of how many people have signed up for Obamacare through healthcare exchanges, and we have a fairly good idea how many people have signed up for expanded Medicaid programs, but what about everyone else?
According to the RAND Corporation, 7.2 million additional people have signed up for employer-based health insurance since September of last year.
RAND Corp, a non-profit think tank, released the survey. Its eye-opening finding: 7.2 million previously uninsured people have gained health coverage through their employer since mid-September. That’s on top of those people who have purchased private coverage on Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces or enrolled in Medicaid or young adults who signed up through their parents’ plan.
Obviously, the economy has not added 7.2 million jobs that provide benefits in the past 8 months.
Larry Levitt, the vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, says some of 7.2 million figure could be attributable to an improving economy, however another portion of it could be attributed to those who have signed up for employer-based plans because of the individual mandate.
Even if RAND’s survey is off and only a couple million people have signed up for employer-based plans because of the individual mandate included in Obamacare, that’s still a significant number of people that have not been accounted for.
According to Talking Points Memo, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that employer-based enrollment would tick upward by only 1 million between 2013 and 2014.
If the 7.2 million figure is even half right, it would be entirely unexpected.