Implode-o-Meter News - Obamacare Implosion Picks Up Steam; Becomes Campaign Fodder

The decision by the nation's third-largest health insurer to pull out of the Affordable Care Act's exchanges in nearly a dozen states is a double whammy to President Barack Obama's signature health law, increasing financial strains on the program while dragging the debate over its merits into the presidential campaign.
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Beyond the political challenges, the administration faces practical ones. It must work to keep other insurers from leaving the system to ensure consumers have adequate choices on the exchanges. Premium increases are running higher than anticipated in many markets, and some insurers say those buying insurance in the program are sicker than expected.
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Premiums will jump in many exchange markets next year because insurers stung by losses in the first years of the law are pursuing rate increases. Open enrollment for 2017 begins Nov. 1 in the shadow of the election.
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Aetna cited financial losses on Monday when it said it would withdraw from 11 out of the 15 states where it now offers plans on the ACA's exchanges. About 800,000 of its 1.1 million individual enrollees purchased their coverage on the exchanges... UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. have also said they would reduce their offerings on the exchanges, which is where consumers can purchase health coverage and qualify for subsidies to lower costs. Nine states appear to be losing both Aetna and UnitedHealth from their exchanges next year, including North Carolina, South Carolina and Arizona. Some states appear likely to have just one exchange insurer in 2017.

As we've been saying for almost 10 years (since before the ACA appeared, validating our worst fears about the structure of health care "reform"), this law is virtual economic suicide, and will implode (indeed, is imploding). "Reform" done in this manner (without fixing the underlying fundamentally-inflationary cost structure of the U.S. health care/insurance system) simply cannot work. It's the political equivalent of attempting to will away gravity by shouting loud enough (or perhaps more accurately, punishing people who do not comply and float freely on their own).

Relevant:

Obamacare Implosion Picks Up Steam; Becomes Campaign Fodder