Aetna completely exits Obamacare exchanges, cites massive losses

a reply to: Xcathdra

People should just buy their healthcare or healthcare insurance or not buy it...forcing people to buy something is NOT acceptable. Putting the Government in charge is a terrible idea. Name one thing the Government does well except for screw things up and kill people for no reason.

originally posted by: Mordekaiser
a reply to: Xcathdra

I'm just commenting, how ironic, single payer eliminates tax problems too. This would be a main reason to just DO IT and not mimic it.

To be honest I am actually surprised Obamacare was never challenged on 10th amendment grounds. Where in the Constitution does it give the FEderal government the authority to enact healthcare for the states.

I am assuming that argument went out the window when SCOTUS ruled obamacare a tax bill to make it lawful?

originally posted by: Gothmog
BCBS has already withdrawn from many States. UHC is doing the same. Both are expected to do and exit , following Aetna's lead soon. The big 3 are out.
There were never enough folks signing up to make up for the government not paying their "subsidies" to them. It has all been a sham. Set up by the 3 hucksters (reminds one of the 3 Stooges) Obama, Pelosi , and Reid

They are to stupid to be blamed honestly. They are like the autistic kid that shoved a PB&J sami into the VCR cause it looked like it might fit. These folks were tooled by top notch operators and then blamed or presented to the american public as human sacrifice.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Iowa has one ACA-ObamaCare citizen who uses about $1.1 Million a month in medical care. Blue Cross has him/her now. Every BCBS-Iowa customer is paying $60 additional per month to support their chronically ill neighbor.

Blue Cross announced it was leaving Iowa at the end of this year. Meaning Aetna or Medica would win the lottery and get this patient.

Aetna announced 2 weeks ago, that it too, was leaving Iowa on 12.31.2017.

Tiny little Medica Insurance company said last week that it couldn't raise its premiums high enough to absorb this patient, along with all the other medically expensive ObamaCare patients in the state. It's leaving on 12.31.2017 as well.

Iowa's 72,000 families that buy their own health insurance, will have NO health insurance as of January 1, 2018. Happy New Year... NOT!

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: Xcathdra

People should just buy their healthcare or healthcare insurance or not buy it...forcing people to buy something is NOT acceptable. Putting the Government in charge is a terrible idea. Name one thing the Government does well except for screw things up and kill people for no reason.

Yes sir that was another....just awful about it.....the SC was even twisted and served the ends of the gangsters. Bad times for america.

The big three must feel they do enough business ensuring through employers.

a reply to: Xcathdra

The fathers probably would be against business in Government, but Healthcare has a slightly different stigma. Is it sick they get in anywhere they can? Ya. But is it really that bad? Well, that depends a lot. A huge issue with it is politics shifts faster than the private sector, that is a bit more stable. Single Payer has bad consequences if our other economies start to fail for example, where Private would remain alive.

Problem with that argument though is how Safe the American economy actually is. And we do share a 'boat' feeling of 'no one left behind' 'all or none', so single payer could fit in nicely despite it's other risks.

Cost wise, it's not even worth arguing anymore for me what would be most efficient. That is not the benefit of the private sector. The two main benefits of private are actual safety of capital and growth rate. This would be the way to go for ANY developing nation in the beginning and is clear why we got to the way we're now, as opposed to when founded, and a bit down the road from there. Now is different though. 90% of people have some form of healthcare insurance. The time to collective contribute is about.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Maybe you should tell everyone why it is that all these insurers are pulling out though.

A big problem: Congress has not kept its bargain

There’s another problem that is not often discussed when the insurance companies announce their premiums and their coverage areas. Obamacare offers payments to insurers to offset their losses in covering high-risk individuals. Congress is not living up to this part of the law.

These payments, called premium stabilization features, are part of the law. Republicans in Congress who are opposed to Obamacare, however, last year allowed only 12 percent of the compensation for early losses promised by the ACA. The ACA law says insurers are due the full amount, but the courts say any shortfalls must be appropriated by Congress, rather than just taken from other funds.

This was adjudicated in the courts after the ACA was passed, and initial premiums were set based on this safety net. Because Congress has only allowed 12 percent of the amount due to insurance companies, the premium stabilization features have been insufficient to limit losses as the law envisioned.
Link

Makes sense why they're bailing out doesn't it. They aren't being reimbursed because the Republican Congress won't pay them the money they're owed that was agreed upon.

Things tend to fail when people make them fail. Imagine that.

The Republican Congress wanted it to fail. So they don't hold up their end of the deal with the insurance companies. The companies lose billions and back out. Then the Republicans blame everyone but themselves. Sounds about right.

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: Xcathdra

originally posted by: GodEmperor
a reply to: Xcathdra

On the political side it reinforces whats been said - Obamacare is failing as it is and needs to be fixed or scrapped and replaced.

No, no. It's working exactly as intended.

Lol... I am sure that will continue to be the position of Democrats.

No, it is intended to do this. The problem is that Hillary isn't in the White House and Demcorats are not in power. They were supposed to come out with talking points about how they tried the free market but it just failed, so we need to take over the entire industry and let the government run it.

To be clear, remember the VA official from Phoenix who let all those vets die on a waiting list? Yeah, a federal judge ruled that her firing was unconstitutional. So she may have her job back.

This is how government will run health care for everyone, not just our poor vets.

Wow! I remember that story, That's how it turned out? That's horrible and corrupt.

America needs more than a enema, more like a culling of white collar crooks.

a reply to: mOjOm

Maybe they aren't getting paid enough because the amounts they need are far more than planned for in the bill and even with the record tax revenues being raked in ... we're STILL spending more than we take in?

a reply to: mOjOm

Didnt obama raid Freddie / Fanny to makes those payments?

Also the article lists the other reasons obamacare is failing. Not enough people moved to it.

a reply to: Mordekaiser

I suppose when every Republican House and Senate candidate pounded on the podium and exclaimed, "Elect me and I will work my arse off to Repeal EVERY WORD of ObamaCare!!", the public really didn't understand what that meant?

That ONE SINGLE PROMISE is why there is a majority of Republicans in the House and the Senate right now. They phuk up and, "nah..nah.nah..nah.. Hey..Hey..Hey.. GOOD BYE."

a reply to: carewemust

Yeah, this is just purposeful division. Just like the Republicans don't understand,

Do the Democrats truly understand Obamacare is cancer without the single-payer goal? I mean, every day it's more, but I've be side smashing these fools since it passed over how not doing it immediately is ridiculous.

Are the Republicans that are blocking that movement in congress addressing that Single payer is the Goal, or Obamacare is a sham without it? You truly can have it both ways. Someone just needs to decide. Till then it's just pointing fingers of who is actually delaying the choice. If Obama was super-serious he would have pushed Single Payer harder, and made Obamacare claused to be removed without it rather than leaving a painful reminder we need to decide.

He saw there was a better way and could not convince people it was better, so he threw a wrench in the engine and said fix it 'however you want' after it exploded. What a dick.

I haven't made it all the way through the thread. That being said, health insurance won't be fixed until we look at the whole pharmaceutical industry , congressional, doctor, health insurance back door hanky prank. Because they are all urinating on our faces and telling us it's raining. And until we all stop believing the rain magically turned yellow you will continue to have idiotic "Trumpcare" and "Obamacare's". As for the Canadian health system, there was a time when they came to the U.S. for better care. Anywho, Thats my two cents.

originally posted by: mOjOm
a reply to: Xcathdra

Maybe you should tell everyone why it is that all these insurers are pulling out though.

A big problem: Congress has not kept its bargain

There’s another problem that is not often discussed when the insurance companies announce their premiums and their coverage areas. Obamacare offers payments to insurers to offset their losses in covering high-risk individuals. Congress is not living up to this part of the law.

These payments, called premium stabilization features, are part of the law. Republicans in Congress who are opposed to Obamacare, however, last year allowed only 12 percent of the compensation for early losses promised by the ACA. The ACA law says insurers are due the full amount, but the courts say any shortfalls must be appropriated by Congress, rather than just taken from other funds.

This was adjudicated in the courts after the ACA was passed, and initial premiums were set based on this safety net. Because Congress has only allowed 12 percent of the amount due to insurance companies, the premium stabilization features have been insufficient to limit losses as the law envisioned.
Link

Makes sense why they're bailing out doesn't it. They aren't being reimbursed because the Republican Congress won't pay them the money they're owed that was agreed upon.

Things tend to fail when people make them fail. Imagine that.

The Republican Congress wanted it to fail. So they don't hold up their end of the deal with the insurance companies. The companies lose billions and back out. Then the Republicans blame everyone but themselves. Sounds about right.

Those payments are what Marco Rubio correctly labeled as "Taxpayer bailouts of health insurance companies". He single-handedly eliminated 78% of the funding for these bailouts, late in 2015. Same effect as turning down the oxygen on a critically ill patient.

Remember, ObamaCare was passed when there was a Democratic Majority in the House and Senate under Prez Obama. Not one Republican voted for the law. To see a Republican "tinker" with funding to starve it, should come as no surprise.

As stated earlier, they were all elected, based on a promise to get rid of ObamaCare.

Republicans/Democrats/Trump should come up with a Bi-Partisan plan... and FAST.

BTW.. BCBS-TN was convinced to come back to the Knoxville Tennessee ObamaCare market for 2018. It had announced a withdrawel from that area at the end of this year. Would have left all of metro Knoxville without a single Obamacare health insurance option. BCBS-TN press release said that premiums would be sky-high though. (High premiums only hurt those who make over 300% of FPL. Lower incomes are capped as to how much they pay, vs government paying.)

Privatize healthcare? Since the government is so inept in making healthcare work for the everyday citizen. Just let the private sector control healthcare. That way people get to choose. As long as the private sector arent allowed to monopolize it or increase premiums more than a certain percentage annually and/ or have a limit on how much they are allowed to charge etc or etc

a reply to: 4N0M4LY

Oh, no! Haven't you heard the democrats? No one survived the pioneer days because they all died on the streets without single payer to pay for their health care ...

Do you really want to go back to that again?

a reply to: ketsuko

No better than the democrats threatening millions of people will die if obamacare is repealed

The ACA was a bailout for the Insurance Companies speculative losses on the stock market in 07. It was never technically designed to work. It was designed to give them $ through the back door, but this failed in the Supreme Court and they stated it could not be done. This is why you see the massive failings going on and pull outs from the exchanges.

You were all conned.

a reply to: Xcathdra

It was designed to fail.

In order to bring about single payer.

Which is what needs to happen.