SOURCE: HOTAIR
BY ED MORRISSEY
Insurers have begun bailing out of the ObamaCare system they helped create. In dozens of states, withdrawals from the markets will leave consumers without a plan to renew, forcing them to look for other plans that will cost more — in some cases, much more. Bloomberg reports that 1.4 million ACA customers will get orphaned in the upcoming open enrollment — more than 10% of current ACA enrollment nationwide:
A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise.
At least 1.4 million people in 32 states will lose the Obamacare plan they have now, according to state officials contacted by Bloomberg. That’s largely caused by Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and some state or regional insurers quitting the law’s markets for individual coverage.
Sign-ups for Obamacare coverage begin next month. Fallout from the quitting insurers has emerged as the latest threat to the law, which is also a major focal point in the U.S. presidential election. While it’s not clear what all the consequences of the departing insurers will be, interviews with regulators and insurance customers suggest that plans will be fewer and more expensive, and may not include the same doctors and hospitals.
In other words, the mandated product that government forces people to buy will get more expensive and less valuable. Let’s see how many people out there still recall how a market works. What happens when a product or service rapidly increases in price while declining in value? Sales generally plummet, at least when markets are voluntary, but it looks like the same will happen even in a mandated economy. S&P forecasts that ObamaCare enrollment next year will stall and could even decline — far short of the HHS goals for the signature law from Barack Obama and Democrats:
More at: URL:
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/10/14/sp-obamacare-enrollment-may-decline-2017/
