Obamacare Faces New Dire Problem

Obamacare in Serious Trouble

The administration PR spin is that the program is doing well. It is almost surreal to hear the happy talk emanating from Health and Human Services given the recent announcement from United Health Care.

“The reality is we continue to see more people signing up for health insurance and more issuers entering the Marketplaces, and at the end of January, we believe we’ll be looking at another successful open enrollment– just like the last two,” HHS spokesman Benjamin Wakana wrote in an emailed statement to the Washington Examiner. “This year, people looking for coverage in the Marketplace continue to have a robust number of plan choices and as the data shows the Marketplace is stable, vibrant and a growing source of coverage for new consumers. Today’s statement by one issuer is not indicative of the Marketplace’s strength and viability.”

But the contrasting perspective from United Health Care challenges that view and makes it sound like the lies will never stop until the program crashes to the ground. United, the largest insurance company in the U.S., dramatically slashed its earnings outlook on Thursday and faulted problems related to Obamacare. They also advised investors that United may exit the program’s exchanges.

“In recent weeks, growth expectations for individual exchange participation have tempered industrywide, co-operatives have failed, and market data has signaled higher risks and more difficulties while our own claims experience has deteriorated,” Stephen J. Hemsley, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, said in a press release.

The release added that, “UnitedHealthcare has pulled back on its marketing efforts for individual exchange products in 2016. The company is evaluating the viability of the insurance exchange product segment and will determine during the first half of 2016 to what extent it can continue to serve the public exchange markets in 2017.”

The company said it expects “earnings pressure” of $425 million, which “is driven by projected losses on individual exchange-compliant products related to the 2015 and 2016 policy years.”

Insurers have had trouble signing up young and healthy individuals on the Obamacare exchanges, which is necessary to offset the costs of covering older and sicker enrollees. This has forced insurers to hike premiums, raise deductibles, and slash the number of doctors and hospitals offered on its plans. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has cut its enrollment expectations for 2016 to about half of what they were when the the legislation became law.

In a conference call with investors, Hemsley offered a sober assessment of the exchanges’ future viability. He said that claims data have been getting worse as time has gone on, and there’s no evidence pointing toward improvement.

The takeover of the healthcare industry by the Federal government has been a Democratic dream since the era of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And though medical programs administered by the government such as Medicare and VA hospitals have been rife with scandals and fraud, the appeal of controlling an additional 15% of the economy represented by health care spending in the U.S. was just too enticing to walk away from. It is turning out that Obamacare is destroying the worlds best health care system, and at the same time bankrupting the middle class and driving tens of thousands of medical professionals out of the industry. Now the major health insurance company in the U.S. is saying that the program does not work, and they are refusing to play. Who knows how long the Obama administration will continues their happy talk while the medical superstructure burns around them.

Source: www.washingtonexaminer.com

Photo: USNews