Quote of the Day, Speaking Of Recycling… edition.

Jason Altmire, new muckity-muck in Florida Blue (used to be Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida), had this to say about his company’s business under Obamacare in Florida:

Altmire said “most” Florida Blue consumers who signed up for exchange plans have paid their first month’s premium, which is required to activate a plan. But he said many consumers remain uneducated about the health law.

“A lot of folks,” he said, “thought it was going to be free.’’

A few things:

• Can’t imagine why they might have thought that their care was going to be free, former Congressman Altmire.
• “Most,” huh?  51% is “most” – and that’s more or less what Georgia is reporting right now. How is Florida Blue doing with its first-payment percentage, anyway?
• The reason why Jason Altmire is a former Congressman is partially because of Obamacare, and partially because he was the subject of an epic bipartisan back-stab* that set him against Mark Critz in a death-match while live grenades were rolled into the fighting pit. I mention this largely because it amuses me to do so.

In general, Altmire is using the infamous term of art ‘exceeded expectations’ in place of actual, well, numbers to described how enrollments are going.  Except, of course, to mention that young people didn’t sign up as expected, so expect higher premiums in Florida next year.  Whoops!  He’s got to go now; see you in the funny papers.

I would be a lot more annoyed at these tactics if I thought that they were going to work.

Moe Lane

PS: I wonder if Florida Blue still thinks that Altmire was a great get for them? I’m sure that it seemed so at the time; but then, apparently so was getting involved with Obamacare. But that was before enough people started realizing that the administration was simply bad at running the country…

*I assure you: look at that map and you swiftly come to the conclusion that both parties were in on the redistricting. And to be fair: Murtha’s old seat was so horrifically gerrymandered that the new result really was, objectively speaking, an improvement.