ENROLLMENT ZERO: No one signs up for Obamacare in Hawaii - NO ONE

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

5/21/2015 /(2 days ago)/

*Catholic Online* (*www.catholic.org* )

*Both Vermont and Rhode Island signed up less than 100 households*

Suppose they gave universal health care - and no one came? That appears to be the case in Hawaii, where Hawaii's Obamacare Exchange enrolled a grand total of ZERO - simply no one, people during its special enrollment period. While Hawaii's enrollment was a goose egg, it was in close company; both the states of Vermont and Rhode Island only enrolled 75 and 25 households, respectively.

Suppose they gave universal health care - and no one came?

// Highlights

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org )

5/21/2015 /(2 days ago)/

Published in Politics & Policy

Keywords: Obamacare , enrollment , Web Sites , Hawaii , Vermont , Rhode Island

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - To placate many annoyed U.S. citizens, the Obama administration had implemented the special enrollment period from March 15 - April 30 to assist individuals who were unaware they would face a tax penalty for not having "qualifying" health insurance. Less than 250,000 individuals decided to enroll nationwide. Bottom line is that millions of Americans would rather pay the tax than enroll in Obamacare.

Hawaii's dismal performance comes as no surprise. The Web site cost taxpayers $205 million but could only enroll 8,592 individuals the first year. The cost to taxpayers per enroll: $23,899.

The state legislature recently rejected a $28 million bailout for the Web site, which means that a contingency plan to dismantle the exchange and migrate to the federal exchange will be implemented immediately. Taxpayers are not off the hook. It's expected that moving to the federally run healthcare.gov will cost $30 million.

Hawaii's Web site was by far not the first to implode. Oregon's $305 million exchange was officially abolished earlier this year at an additional cost and of $41 million. The exchange is currently under investigation by numerous federal organizations for how it wasted so much money.

States received $5.4 billion from the federal government for state-based Obamacare exchanges with no strings attached and zero oversight over spending decisions.

The American people - fruitlessly - await an explanation.