December 5, 2013
Why the dental industry wants exemption from Obamacare
Although the Obama administration expected a gradual increase in enrollments from October of this year – when the marketplace opened – to December, they did not anticipate the major traffic issues the site would experience.
States with the best (and worst) adult oral health care
But it seems that the problem has been alleviated. Now that uninsured Americans are racing against the January enrollment deadline, traffic is up – and many Americans plan to keep trying until the deadline.
While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – the agency in charge of the rollout – won’t issue official numbers until the middle of December, preliminary data suggests that over 100,000 people from the 36 states relying on the HealthCare.gov site enrolled in a plan. Reuters added that tens of thousands more from the 14 states that have their own exchanges were also able to enroll.
The numbers give hope to many Americans who have been unable to enroll in plans in the past, but there are still opponents of the law who want to remind people that many Americans have lost the coverage they had before (likely replaced by a new plan that adheres to the guidelines of the ACA).
President Obama addressed the nation on Wednesday regarding the program. "I've acknowledged more than once that we didn't roll out this plan the way we should have,” he said. “This law is going to work, and for the sake of our economic security, it needs to work."