Thursday, May 19, 2016

Cause & Effect, ACA-style

This morning, Bob posted on Highmark's lawsuit seeking to compel the Feds to actually cough up the money as promised. On the one hand, it's nice to see some pushback, but on the other ... well, the industry made its pact with the devil, and so earns little sympathy from yours truly.

On the gripping hand, it seems that more eyes are opening about the future of this train-wreck:

"Insurer participation in ObamaCare exchanges declined 27 percent since law took effect"

That is, over a quarter of the carriers initially counted on to make up the market (for certain values of "market") are now gone, leaving consumers with fewer choices and higher rates.

And how much higher?

You may want to sit down for this:

"PPACA public exchange plans in New York seek to raise premiums by 17% ... UnitedHealth ... is seeking to boost New York state premiums by 45.6 percent — the second-highest request in the state."

"2nd highest"

Yikes!

If these rate hike requests are rejected (as they may well be), look for that 27% dropout rate to be the low watermark going forward as carriers continue to get hammered. Alternately (or, perhaps, also), look for more carriers to drop out.
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