Friday, November 20, 2015

USA Today: UnitedHealth warns it may exit Obamacare plans

"The nation's largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the Obamacare exchanges after 2016 – forcing more hundreds of millions of people to find other coverage – after low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars."
If UnitedHealth drops out, consumers would lose one of the lowest-cost plans available in much of the country, and some wonder how smaller insurers could fill the void.
“If they can’t make money on the exchanges, it seems it would be hard for anyone,” said Katherine Hempstead, who heads the insurance coverage team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
In a sharp reversal of its previously optimistic projections, UnitedHealth suspended marketing of its Obamacare exchange plans for 2016 — which the company has already committed to offer — to limit its exposure to additional losses.
“We see no data pointing to improvement" in the financial performance of public-exchange plans, UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley said on a conference call, though he added that "we remain hopeful" the market will recover.
The move comes amid indications that insurers are absorbing steeper costs than they expected from plans offered to individuals through the public exchanges, which are purchased online.

8 comments:

deborah said...

How soon before Medicaid is voted by Congress to be nationally available to all comers?

bagoh20 said...

I don't know why we limit Medicaid to just Americans. Oh, that's right, we don't, so why do we limit it to just people inside the boarders. Wouldn't offering it worldwide be the humane thing, and wouldn't that reduce immigration pressure?

What? You say that would bankrupt it? Oh, we don't want to do that.

bagoh20 said...

"“We see no data pointing to improvement""

That was true before they cheerleaded for Obamacare and screwed their company and us. I never though I'd ever hear myself say this but, the cheerleaders need to go.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It was designed to fail so they can make it worse.

While the Clintons grow richer, we grow poorer.

Ask Castro.

bagoh20 said...

"It's the law of the Land." So was Prohibition.

bagoh20 said...

"boarders"?

Ahmed don't surf.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

He drinks and surf... and serfs...

Methadras said...

If you like your healthcare provider you can keep your healthcare provider, uh, that is until they flee the system.