ObamaCare #Winning Updates

Our good friend Holly R tips us to some interesting, if obvious, ACA-related news:

■ Ohio Senator Rob Portman points out that, under The ObamaTax, not only was the claim that "if you like your insurance you can keep it" a lie, but that as a direct result of its implementation, 20 counties in Ohio (almost a quarter) have only one health insurance carrier still in the individual market:

■ From the "D'unh! Department" we learn that higher premiums in The Grand Canyon State led to, get this, "a 3.3 percent enrollment decline in marketplace plans."

Hunh.

■ "New PBM programs bypass insurers to offer drug discounts directly to consumers"

On the surface, this seems like good news, and it may well be. But as we've noted before, this is really a double-edged sword: encouraging drug use by offering pricing incentives distorts claims experience:

"Over the past five years, the use of manufacturer’s coupons for high-cost brand-name drugs contributed to an additional $700 million to $2.7 billion in drug spending."

So, may well be no "right" answer here, but certainly not an open-and-shut case, either.