National newspapers, including the New York Times and Washington Post, are starting to write critically of the healthcare exchanges, and to notice out loud that there don’t seem to be many people who have signed up for insurance. But, as it has been for a long time, it is in the local papers that the most brutal stories are to be found. This, from yesterday’s Miami Herald is particularly damning:
Will the Floridians who have enrolled for Obamacare please stand up?
Nearly two weeks after the federal government launched the online Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, individuals who have successfully used the choked-up website to enroll for a subsidized health insurance plan have reached a status akin to urban legend: Everyone has heard of them, but very few people have actually met one.
The Miami Herald searched high and low for individuals who completed enrollment for a subsidized health plan through the marketplace, also called an exchange, launched by the federal government on Oct. 1 in 36 states, including Florida.
If the Republican party is smart, it will have hired somebody quietly to ignore the national debate and to pick up local news stories to revisit in 2014 and beyond.