Obamacare has been disastrous for health insurers, like UnitedHealth Group, billions have been wasted on state exchanges, which are hanging by a thread, and the law’s enrollment projections (calculated by the CBO three years ago) were off by 24 million for 2016. Now, more Americans are opting to pay the penalty and remain uninsured because it makes more sense for their finances. No wonder why this law is unpopular. Oh, and did I mention that premiums are projected to rise (again) this year. Given the expensive nature of the Obamacare market, some insurers are dropping like flies, giving Americans in some rural areas just one choice when it comes to their health care. Of course, some folks are worried about monopoly dynamics (via WSJ):
Health-insurance customers in a growing number of mostly rural regions will have just one insurer’s plans to choose from on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges next year, as some companies pull out of unprofitable markets.
The entire states of Alaska and Alabama are expected to have only one insurer on the health law’s signature online marketplaces next year, according to state regulators. The same is expected to be true in parts of several other states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma, state regulators said.
So far, more than 650 counties appear on track to have just one insurer on the exchanges in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is tracking withdrawals as they become public. That would be up from 225 in 2016, when the state of Wyoming, among other areas, already had just one ACA marketplace competitor. Of the counties in jeopardy of having only a single exchange insurer next year, 70% have populations that are mostly rural, said Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the foundation...
Read more:
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/05/19/as-health-care-insurance-companies-leave-aca-markets-some-counties-left-with-only-one-insurer/
