Red State Enrollment Surges As Obamacare Deadline Approaches

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Republicans are running against destroying Obamacare, but as the deadline for enrollment approaches long lines formed to sign up in red state cities like Tampa, El Paso, and Houston.

The Hill reported:

The federal health insurance marketplace saw record volume for a Saturday, and operators at the federal call centers struggled to keep up with the volume of calls as consumers flooded the ObamaCare exchanges ahead of Monday’s enrollment deadline.

According to the Obama administration, HealthCare.Gov saw two million visits this weekend, while the call centers received 380,000 phone calls. On Sunday, the insurance marketplace tweeted a warning to consumers that because of a crush of calls, those interested in coverage could leave their information and an employee would contact them later.

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White House spokesman Eric Schultz tweeted that they were seeing enrollment surges in red-state cities like Tampa, Las Vegas, Houston and El Paso, Texas. On Saturday, other administration officials tweeted photographs of long lines forming at enrollment events around the country.

In one respect, this is common sense. The Republican controlled South has gutted the social safety net. Because of Republican obstructionism, almost 5 million people in the South will get no help with purchasing health insurance. People in red states are flocking to sign up because their Republican governors and state legislatures have made it almost impossible to get help at the state level.

The long lines of people waiting to sign up for the ACA in Ted Cruz’s own state are proof that the Republican rhetoric does not match reality. People want affordable access to healthcare. The frustrating thing for Democrats is that most Americans have not connected the dots yet.

When Republicans state that their number one goal is to get rid of Obamacare, they mean taking away your health insurance, and the protections that hundreds of millions of Americans have gained under the law. Eventually, the American people, except for die hard Republicans, are going to figure this out and the Republican Party is going to be in serious trouble.

All Republicans can do is step aside and watch the people that they took an oath to represent, stand in line, and reject their anti-Obamacare rhetoric.

There may be no bigger symbol of the president’s victory than the rush of red state residents who are signing up for the ACA.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association