Let the excuses begin!
Comment: Obamacare drives up costs. That forces insurers to hike premiums, which makes healthy smart people drop out, which raises costs even more. Lather, rinse, repeat.
“Aetna the nation’s fourth-largest health insurer, just decided to stop offering plans on Obamacare‘s exchanges in all but four states in 2017. The firm says that it was losing roughly $300 million per year on these policies. And it projected that its losses would only increase, since the share of covered individuals “in need of high-cost care” was growing, according to CEO Mark Bertolini.”
“Aetna isn’t the only insurer giving up on Obamacare. UnitedHealth, America’s biggest insurer, will sell plans in just three states next year, down from 34 this year. Humana will offer coverage in just 156 counties in 2017, 88 percent fewer than this year.”
“In other words, the insurance “death spiral” has arrived. Obamacare’s critics have long predicted that exchange plans’ high premiums and deductibles would keep all but the sickest Americans from enrolling. These people would need so much medical care that insurers would lose money no matter how much they raised premiums. Eventually, insurers would have no choice but to pull out.”
“President Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have proposed a novel solution to this government-created problem — more government.”
Aetna’s Obamacare pullout means the ‘insurance death spiral’ has arrived
Sally C. Pipes, CEO, Pacific Research Institute