OBAMACARE, WE HARDLY KNEW YE – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  Even Joe Biden now admits that Obamacare enrollment just ain't what it's supposed to be.  From Fox:

Though officials have confidently claimed enrollment in ObamaCare is surging, Vice President Biden suddenly suggested during a stop in Minneapolis the totals might be lower than projected.

"Initially, we talked about by the end of this period having seven million people lined up," he told a group in a coffee shop on Wednesday. "We may not get to seven but we're gonna get to five or six, and that's a hell of a start with people."

That’s quite a difference from the confident predictions last fall, just before the rollout, from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

"I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014," she told NBC last September.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office stuck with that estimate for the exchanges until just recently, when it lowered its projection from 7 million to 6 million. But the vice president is the first to mention a number as low as 5 million, suggesting doubts in the administration.

In its report on signups through the end of January, the administration claimed 9.6 million total had gotten health insurance -- 3.3 million in the federal and state exchanges, and another 6.3 million in Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans.

But a nonpartisan health care firm says the number of new signups in Medicaid from ObamaCare is much lower than 6.3 million.

"It's about 1.3 to 1.8 million people who are new to the program The rest are part of the regular churn that are in and out," Matthew Eyeles, of the firm Avalere Health, said.

And those in the regular churn -- those who come and go all the time – wouldn’t count as part of ObamaCare because they were already eligible before the health care law.

For those new to Medicaid under the expansion encouraged by ObamaCare, the administration pays 100 percent of the cost for the first three years. But it pays no additional funds for those already eligible, which is often one of the top three items in state budgets.

COMMENT:  Not exactly what we were told when the original Obamacare salesmen were making the rounds. Something else we weren't told is that many of the Obamacare "plans" actually prevent participants from using the most renowned medical centers in the country.  They often force participants to change doctors, another violation of Obama's original promise that you can keep your doctor.

Let's face it:  The real goal of Barack Obama is socialized medicine with a single-payer plan, the way the British health system works.  Wait 'til Americans have to wait five months to see a specialist.  We'll see what socialized medicine really is.  The sad fact, though, is that the low-information voters who support Obama will probably go along with it.

February 21, 2014