So, Why Aren't People Signing Up For It?

This November 12, 2010 Fox News article reports that people aren't signing up in large numbers for Obamacare's coverage:

A startling number of people have signed up for the government's program that provides insurance coverage for the previously uninsurable until the new health care law kicks in fully in 2014. The people were not covered because of pre-existing conditions.

The sign-up is startling because the number is so low.

The Health and Human Services Department reports just 8,011 people have enrolled in the entire country. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the HHS estimate in July was that 375,000 people would have signed up by now.

I can see several reasons why people may not be signing up for it.

1. Perhaps they can't afford it.  If they are pre-existing conditions, they may be so impoverished that it is out of their reach.  In that case, Obamacare didn't solve the right problem.

2. Perhaps they don't need it.  Their pre-existing conditions may not be such a financial burden that they need the help.  But that doesn't make much sense.  We were repeatedly told that this was a major problem--and those people that I know of with pre-existing conditions aren't generally so fabulously rich that they don't need health insurance.

3. The number of people with such severe pre-existing health conditions was much lower than we were led to believe--in which case, we have wasted an enormous amount of money setting up a program that is far larger than it needed to be.  Perhaps we could have come up with a less expensive solution to handle this relatively small number of people in this predicament?