6 Million Medicaid Enrollments Since Rollout of Obamacare

U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disclosed that 6 million people have signed-up for  healthcare from Medicaid since the rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). 

The new data suggests that millions of the “8 million” Obamacare enrollees touted by the administration are actually new beneficiaries of a government program that has existed since the 1960s, not participants in the private market. However, the administration did not specify how many of the new 6 million gained coverage under the health care law’s expanded Medicaid.

This revelation comes just 48 hours after the Department of Health and Human Services said many of the those who “purchased” insurance on HealthCare.gov “may have received greater subsidies than merited or were allowed to purchase plans for which they were ineligible.” Given the huge influx in border crossings, it also appears Obamacare is continuing to enroll large numbers of illegal aliens.

Obamacare registration was originally scheduled from “October 1, 2013-March 31, 2014,” but the Obama Administration announced an extension of enrollment through mid-April. During the two week period, 1.1 million people were enrolled in Medicare, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

But the HealthCare.gov website is still offering “ObamaCare Special Enrollment Period.” Reasonable exemptions for late registration include marriage, divorce, and adoption. But a continuous Special Enrollment period is available to “an individual, who was not previously a citizen, national, or lawfully present individual gains such status.” 

Lawfully present individuals, according to the Obama Administration’s Executive Order for “Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors,” commonly referred to as “DREAMers,” includes:

Unauthorized immigrants who are under the age of 31; entered the United States before age 16; have lived continuously in the country for at least five years; have not been convicted of a felony, a “significant” misdemeanor, or three other misdemeanors; and are currently in school, graduated from high school, earned a GED, or served in the military.

The DREAMer executive order has turned millions of illegal aliens into “lawfully present individuals” and is acting as a magnet for new illegal immigrants. The Houston Chronicle this week reported that the “flow” of illegal aliens from Central and South America through Texas “has become a torrent in the past month” that is overwhelming the Border Patrol and the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Unaccompanied immigrants below the age of 18 crossing the border each year averaged 6,000 to 8,000 through 2011. But after the DREAMer’s Executive Order, the number jumped up to 14,000 in 2012, almost 25,000 in 2013, and this year is expected to rise to between 60,000 and 74,000. The Obama Administration predicts by 2015 almost 130,000 undocumented minors will cross into the U.S., according to Reuters.

Under the Secure Communities program that began in 2008, arrested people are supposed to have their immigration status checked against the Department of Homeland Security data base and their criminal record checked against the FBI crime database. Since President Obama took office, the number of “Arrested Aliens Identified via Secure Communities” rose from 95,664 in 2009 to a projected 459,332 in 2013. But the percentage of arrested aliens with criminal backgrounds that are deported has dropped from 23% when Obama signed his DREAMer Executive Order to only 15% today. Of the 1.43 million arrested under Secure Communities during Obama’s Administration, only 300,000 were deported. Those not deported may now be deemed to be legally present individuals.

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