'Your math is off': Nancy Pelosi says 9.5 million now covered thanks to Obamacare; Byron York offers reality check

Nancy Pelosi is gushing today over an article in the LA Times:

“At least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage” thanks to #ACA—@latimes: http://t.co/etD4te9U56 #GetCoveredNow

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 31, 2014

Just last week, the Dems were rejoicing over a purported 6 million “enrollees.”

@NancyPelosi @latimes yeah whatever, and just the other day it was not even 6mil. you folks in #DC spill more crap then anyone on the planet

— Pyde Pypper (@PydePypper) March 31, 2014

That’s quite a leap.

https://twitter.com/knall103/status/450653165377966080

@NancyPelosi @latimes Do you guys communicate at all? Is it 6mill or 9.5? Maybe just pick a number out if a hat! I think hat sounds right..

— OMMFGR (@ommfgr) March 31, 2014

@NancyPelosi @latimes first of all I don't trust LA times for real facts…even HHS claims it doesn't know. Or are we making it up as we go?

— janet l (@winojanet) March 31, 2014

Well, the Dems have made it quite clear that facts just aren’t important to them. But we’re open-minded. We’re willing to consider where this 9.5 million comes from.

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York took a closer look:

New: Modest Obamacare reforms insured more people than massive system overhaul. http://t.co/M4HJVSx95K

— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 31, 2014

Read it and weep:

The Times says the numbers break down like this: 4.5 million previously uninsured people are now on Medicaid; 3 million previously uninsured young people are now covered because of a provision that allows them to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26; and 2 million previously uninsured have purchased coverage on the Obamacare exchanges. In all, it is “the largest expansion in health coverage in America in half a century,” according to the Times.

Assume all the numbers are correct, or at least close to correct. By far the largest part of Obamacare’s health coverage expansion has come from a) expanding Medicaid, and b) allowing young people to stay on their parents’ coverage. The part in which Democrats essentially blew up the health care markets, imposed the individual mandate, caused premiums to rise and deductibles to skyrocket? That hasn’t been such a success. If the Times number are correct, all of that — placing new burdens of higher costs and narrower choices on millions of Americans, in addition to setting the stage for coming changes in employer-based coverage — has resulted in two million previously uninsured gaining coverage.

If LAT numbers are correct, 7.5m newly insured from Medicaid/until-26 provisions; all of 2m from exchanges… http://t.co/6oWMWGIaWw

— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 31, 2014

So, according to York, if we go by the LA Times’ breakdown, only 2 million people (21 percent) of the previously uninsured 9.5 million gained coverage through Obamacare exchanges.

https://twitter.com/seanagnew/status/450669427739361280

The number of people who have gotten screwed by Obamacare is much higher:

@NancyPelosi @latimes And how many people have a higher cost of living now as a result of this gun to our heads?

— OpinionsRlikeBLEEP (@opinionslikeblp) March 31, 2014

https://twitter.com/cherilboyer/status/450652307542114305

Millions … and counting.