There is no way that the insurance companies didn’t know exactly what was coming. Remember how they didn’t really fight Obamacare? Reporting at the time of its passage outlined what was taking place — the Obama Administration basically bought them off by explaining how they were going to be able to raise their rates through the roof. The Administration’s aim was to crash the system, and the insurance companies were looking to cash in. Here is Hal Scherz writing at Townhall:
Much has been written about Aetna and their decision to pull out of 11 of the 15 state exchanges that they participate in through Obamacare. They claim that they have already lost $430 million in 2016. They join United Healthcare, which claims that it lost $1 billion in 2015-16, and Humana, who have already announced their departures from the exchanges. Thus, as predicted by so many, the slow death spiral of the Affordable Care Act is occurring before our eyes.
As always, the losers are the patients who in many states have no choices remaining when shopping for health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation expects the average insurance premium to rise nine percent in 2017, which means a monthly premium of $281 dollars for the lowest level plan on the exchanges. In states where there is no competition, the rates will surge even higher. For this more expensive insurance, patients will receive less choice, as the companies continue to narrow their physician panels in an attempt to maximize their profits.
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So we should be sympathetic to the insurance companies who are bleeding money by participating in the Obamacare exchanges, right? Not when you look at things in context and not simply with the insurance company spin.
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The insurance companies participated in the shake-up of their industry so that they could maximize their profits. They even negotiated a way to give themselves additional taxpayer money to make up for their losses on the exchanges, but Congress pulled the plug on that. So after being an accomplice in this healthcare debacle, and putting themselves in a position to rake in record profits, their greed knows no bounds. They want to purge the losses that they helped orchestrate.
Don’t weep for the insurance companies. These companies and their lobbyists (AHIP) are complicit in this mess. American consumers and policyholders should understand the truth and demand better service from these companies as well as the members of Congress who willfully passed Obamacare before they knew what was in it and continue to take money from the insurance industry.
Image credit: Townhall.com
Image credit: www.townhall.com.
