Montana: "Less than a half-dozen" attend ObamaCare forum

Buried deep in a Billings Gazette story about a flop of an ObamaCare forum in Montana's largest city, is that "less than a half-dozen people had attended."

Less than a half-dozen? So was it one, two, three, four, or five Montanans who showed up?

Perhaps no one did. Zero is less than a half-dozen.

The forum was set up by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Because of the federal government shutdown, HHS, along with nearly all of Billings, were no shows. Of course the shutdown is being blamed for the void.

The event was held at the Billings Public Library.

From the Gazette:

Certified Application Counselors and navigators, positions designed to help people understand and use the new healthcare marketplace, were on hand from both RiverStone Health and Planned Parenthood of Montana, but were idle much of the time.

By day's end, less than a half-dozen people had attended, and RiverStone Health officials left early.

"The shutdown has slowed a lot of processes, and this is one of them," said Martha Stahl, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Montana. "But it's important that people know and realize that they don't have to be enrolled today. They have time. People are feeling pressured and stressed and they don’t need to."

Pressured? By whom? Last week the Washington Post reported that enrollment in the federal ObamaCare exchange is in the single digits.

Just like the Billings forum.

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