The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday it mistakenly included up to 400,000 dental plans in the 7.1-million enrollment figure it touted before Obamacare’s second round, a move that nudged them above congressional budget estimates for participation in the contentious overhaul.
Republican investigators on the House oversight committee calculated the health enrollment total to be 6.7 million, based on data from the Obama administration.
The revelation forced the Health and Human Services Department to admit to a notable error at a time when Republicans have accused Democratic supporters of the 2010 law as less than forthcoming with the public.
“This mistake was unacceptable. I will be communicating that clearly throughout the department,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in Facebook chat. “While we understand some will be skeptical, our clarity that this is [a] mistake and the fact that we have quickly corrected the numbers should give people confidence. It is important to continue to focus on the fact that millions of Americans are getting affordable health care.”
The agency still believes that marketplace enrollment will total 9.1 million in 2015.
The 400,000-enrollee boost — first reported by Bloomberg — is noteworthy because the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 7 million people would sign up for health plans on the exchanges in the first year.
After a rocky start, the exchanges appeared to surpass that figure, but the inclusion of dental plans appears to have put them across the finish line.
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the oversight panel that discovered the issue, doubted that it was a mistake.
“Faced with large numbers of Americans running for an exit from Obamacare, instead of offering the public an accurate accounting, the administration offered numbers that obscured and downplayed the number of dropouts,” he said. “Now they’re saying this was just a ’mistake.’ The claim that this was only accident stretches credulity.”
In a victory lap last spring, the White House touted 8 million signups on the health exchanges that let Americans choose private health plans in competitive state-based marketplaces.
Through attrition, the enrollment figure had dropped to 7.3 million by September, according to congressional testimony from Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The administration put enrollment 7.1 million ahead of the law’s second round of signups, which kicked off Saturday and lasts until Feb. 15.
Revelations about the dental plans will raise questions about transparency and the health care law.
Already, a consultant who worked on Obamacare — economist Jon Gruber of MIT — is under fire for public comments he made that suggest Democratic lawmakers obscured the law’s provisions to make it more palatable to the public and congressional budget analysts.
“Despite claims by this White House that the health law and its execution have been transparent, the facts continue to tell a different story,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican. “The American people deserve better.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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