Along with the federal government’s roll-out of the bad news surrounding enrollment in the health benefits exchanges of the Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka ObamaCare), HealthSource RI has published a more-complete picture of Rhode Islanders’ use of the site.

Basically, of the 4,405 “processed applications,” 73%, or 3,213, are Medicaid recipients, meaning that they were “shopping” for a welfare program that’s free to them.  Of the remaining 1,192 presumably-paying customers (although many will likely be mostly or partially subsidized by federal taxpayers), only 267 have fully enrolled — that is, they’ve made the first payment indicating that they’ve actually purchased the plan.

As shown on the chart that I’ve posted on the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s site, that works out to $371,268 in U.S. taxpayer-funded grants to get the exchange working per enrollment.

As she might be expected to do, HealthSource director Christine Ferguson puts a positive spin on the results, saying that “the Medicaid piece is a great, smashing success.”  Make it easy for people to get something for free, I guess, and you’ll have takers.

My favorite paragraph in Felice Freyer’s Providence Journal article, though, is this one:

Among those buying private insurance, Ferguson said that Rhode Island has exceeded the first-month target of 890, which was set by the federal government but not previously revealed. (Of the 1,192 who are buying insurance, 267 have already paid their premiums, which are due Dec. 15.)

Beware previously unrevealed goals, especially when it’s not clear when the federal government actually defined “enrollee.”  One wonders where that goal — which is exactly 75% of the actual number (to the nearest ten) — came from.

In August, Spokesman Ian Lang told me that the exchange “anticipates” enrolling at least 70,000 people by the end of next year.  Even if that includes Medicaid recipients (which wasn’t clear), they’re not on track to make it.