Politics

Vox: The Best National Data On Obamacare Comes From A Bloomfield Township Bedroom

April 08, 2014, 7:43 AM

For the past six months, the best Obamacare sign-up data hasn't come from a Washington think-tank or Health and Human Services number-crunchers.

The best, most granular accounting of Obamacare's sign-ups happens in a messy bedroom-turned-office in Michigan where Charles Gaba runs ACASignups.Net., Sarah Kliff writes in Vox, the new online media outlet launched this week to great fanfare.

Gaba is a 43-year-old web developer who lives in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. He's an Obamacare supporter but one who finds the health insurance industry "ungodly boring." His eyes used to glaze over when his father, a doctor, would start talking HMOs and PPOs.

But for some reason, he became interested in the Obamacare enrollment numbers and has spent six months tracking them obsessively. He usually does so at night, after his 8-year-old son has gone to sleep. And with no background in health policy whatsoever, Gaba built the country's most trusted source of Affordable Care Act enrollment data.

Gaba's enrollment counts are routinely more up-to-date than the federal government's, which is why they turn up on newspaper front pages and cable news shows. Paul Krugman has described him as "the invaluable Charles Gaba."


Read more:  Vox


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