But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head.
For example, the Ministry of Plenty’s forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at 145 million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than 145 millions.
A week or so ago the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a semi-final 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period report, which noted that 23.6 million Americans had selected 2025 plan year coverage via the various ACA marketplaces since November 1st...as of either January 4th or December 28th, depending on the state.
Those thru dates are important, of course, because the 2025 OEP was still ongoing in every state except Idaho at the time...and in fact it's still going on in several of them, including CA, DC, MA, NJ, NY, RI & VA. In some of these states the final deadline is still up to 2 weeks away.
The 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) officially begins on November 1st.
This is the best OEP ever for the ACA for several reasons:
The expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren't previously eligible, are continuing through the end of 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act;
A dozen states are either launching, continuing or expanding their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;
Update 12/09/24: As expected, a federal court has shot down the eligibility of DACA recipients to enroll in ACA exchange coverage in the 19 states involved in the lawsuit. In theory the roughly 2/3 of DACA recipients living in the other 31 states +DC should still be eligible.
And remember, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.
If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it a few years back but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to these major improvements it's a whole different ballgame.
Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2025:
However, for no particular reason, I included the methodology for Medicaid & CHIP data in with the ACA enrollment post, since it ACA Expansion Medicaid overlaps with that.
Covered California Reaches Record-Breaking 1.9M Enrollees Before Open Enrollment’s Jan. 31 Deadline
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California has surpassed 1.9 million enrollees, bolstering its record-high enrollment before open enrollment’s Jan. 31 deadline for California’s remaining uninsured.
This open enrollment, 299,060 Californians have signed up for 2025 coverage as of Jan. 26, a 13 percent increase over the same period last year.
Another 1,638,954 Californians have renewed their health insurance plans, a 10 percent jump over the same date last year, with more than 100,000 total enrollees in 2025 as compared to the record enrollment in 2024.
Combined, that's 1,938,014 QHP selections thru 1/26, or 8.6% higher than last year's final OEP tally of 1,784,653 QHPs.
It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.
In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.
Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:
The first official press release from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Trump 2.0 Administration is out, and not only is it pretty innocuously worded...it's actually complimentary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is noteworthy given that the IRA was passed & signed into law exclusively by Democrats & President Biden:
CMS Statement on Lowering the Cost of Prescription Drugs
Lowering the cost of prescription drugs for Americans is a top priority of President Trump and his Administration. In accordance with the statutory requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the list of 15 drugs selected for the second cycle of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program on January 17, 2025.
Early Monday evening I received a copy of a memo that will impact thousands of institutions supported by funding from the federal government.
A copy of the memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was provided to The Handbasket at approximately 5pm ET by a source whose anonymity is being protected for fear of professional retribution. The memo was sent to the heads of executive departments and agencies with the subject, “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs.” I shared the news on Bluesky at 6:04pm ET, and my reporting was confirmed by the Washington Post a few hours later.
It is a truly unhinged document that sounds like it was written by the world’s most petty 4Chan poster—but then again, that’s who’s currently running our federal government. Here’s the first paragraph to get a feel for it (emphasis mine):
It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.
In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.
Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:
It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.
In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.
Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:
