The political left is always telling us that “health care is different.” And seeing how hard it is for the Administration to tabulate enrollment numbers, one can’t help but think that the left might be right. For example, here is TPM Livewire:
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that approximately 375,000 people visited the relaunched HealthCare.gov between midnight and noon ET….
The press secretary would not confirm reports that 100,000 people enrolled in health insurance plans through the federal marketplace in November.
There are two things to take away from this. One is that tracking the number of people who actually enroll in an insurance plan via HealthCare.gov is much, much harder than tracking the number of people who visit the website. Second, tracking how many people purchase insurance is much, much harder than tracking how many people buy other goods.
On the second point, here is USAToday on the results of Cyber Monday:
As of 6 p.m. ET, sales on Amazon were up 44.3% over last year, while sales at eBay were up 32.1%, according to ChannelAdvisor, which tracks third-party sellers on eBay and Amazon.
Everest Peak or Chomolungma – the top of the world (8848 m)
So, sales made by Amazon and eBay can be tabulated within hours, if not minutes, after they occur. Doing that must be really easy. Tracking health insurance enrollment, by contrast, is clearly far more difficult. Because, well, health care is different.
That has to be the case, because how else can the White House know how many visitors were at HealthCare.gov, yet can’t tell us how many people enrolled? Why else must we wait for an enrollment report that comes out in the middle of the month?
I’m at a loss for any other explanation.
