Analysis: Obamacare Collapsing Like Hillary Navigating A Flight of Stairs

Rumors of the death of the Obamcare Death Spiral were premature.

Earlier this week, Aetna, which covers about 900,000 people through the health exchanges created under Obamacare, announced that it would dramatically reduce its presence those exchanges. Instead of expanding into five new states this year, as the insurer had previously planned, the company said that it would drop out of 11 of the 15 states in which it currently sells under the law.

Aetna's decision follows similar moves from other insurers: UnitedHealth announced in April that it would cease selling plans on most exchanges. Shortly after, Humana pulled out of two states, Virginia and Alabama. More than a dozen of the nonprofit health insurance cooperatives set up under the law—health insurance carriers created using government-back loans in order to spur competition—have failed entirely. While some insurers are entering the exchanges, even more are leaving.

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This slow exodus of insurers from the health law's marketplaces represents a serious threat to the continued stability and existence of its exchanges. Obamacare is perched on the edge of a death spiral.

The fundamental problem is simple: Insurers are losing money. Earlier this year, Aetna said it expected to lose about $300 million on the plans. UnitedHealth estimated losses on exchange plans in the range of $650 million. This is not a problem that is limited to big, profit-seeking insurance companies: The majority of the non-profit co-op plans created under the law have failed, citing an inability to pay claims using premium revenues.

Oh, don't be silly. That's why God created illegal, unauthorized-by-Congress executive slush funds, to pay taxpayer monies without legal authority to your buddies in the insurance industry. Obama's got a pen and a phone and a Messiah complex and no real checks on his power.

One in six Obamacare customers cold completely lose coverage.

It's hard, if not impossible, to calculate precisely how many people will see their Obamacare plans canceled next year, since neither insurers nor the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have comprehensively reported insurers' market share by state or county.

But it could be about one in six Obamacare customers, or 17 percent, using enrollment numbers reported by insurers.

posted by Ace at 07:12 PM

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