• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Aetna CEO: Obamacare in 'Death Spiral'

Renae

Renae

Banned
Suspended
DP Veteran
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Messages
50,241
Reaction score
19,243
Location
San Antonio Texas
Gender
Female
Political Leaning
Conservative
Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini escalated his criticism of the Affordable Care Act, saying Obamacare’s markets are nearing failure as premiums climb and healthier individuals drop out.“It is in a death spiral,” Bertolini said in a video interview with the Wall Street Journal that aired Wednesday on the newspaper’s website. He predicted that more insurers will drop out of the market for 2018, following Humana Inc.’s decision to quit Obamacare entirely for next year.
Aetna, too, is mulling whether to further reduce its presence in the markets set up by the ACA. The company cut its footprint to four states for this year, from 15, after losing about $450 million on sales of ACA plans last year.
Bertolini has been saying for months that the ACA’s markets are deteriorating. In October, he said that rising rates would push healthy people away from Obamacare, leaving insurers with sicker customers, and forcing premiums even higher. The increasing burden of medical costs as fewer and fewer healthy customers enroll are among the conditions that create an insurance death spiral.
Click to expand...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...amacare-in-a-death-spiral-with-sick-customers

The GOP now has to clean up Obama's mess.
 
The ACA already in death spiral! That's hilarious! I figured it would at least take longer considering how much money people in health insurance got forced into paying for it. Yep. When "the health insurers will pay for a pool" what they meant is that for the first few years the money was pulled out of working individuals paychecks. The people who wrote the ACA were a bunch of slimeballs but it's also likely that the health insurance providers themselves made a conscious choice to do it too. Either way poor grunts like me actually footed the bill, not "health insurance providers".
 
Risky Thicket said:
I hope you and your family and friends never need it.
Click to expand...

Frankly, it's becoming unaffordable even for those who need it. Already this year I've had two clients that are in a situation where they may be best off quitting their jobs (or cutting WAY back) until they hit 65 and can get on Medicare. If you're making $60-65k/yr and you're in your early 60's that $1500/mo insurance premium hurts like hell.
 
Lutherf said:
Frankly, it's becoming unaffordable even for those who need it. Already this year I've had two clients that are in a situation where they may be best off quitting their jobs (or cutting WAY back) until they hit 65 and can get on Medicare. If you're making $60-65k/yr and you're in your early 60's that $1500/mo insurance premium hurts like hell.
Click to expand...

That's horrible. At the same time I would say that as lacking as ACA in some ways it is better than the GOP replacement.
 
Lutherf said:
Frankly, it's becoming unaffordable even for those who need it. Already this year I've had two clients that are in a situation where they may be best off quitting their jobs (or cutting WAY back) until they hit 65 and can get on Medicare. If you're making $60-65k/yr and you're in your early 60's that $1500/mo insurance premium hurts like hell.
Click to expand...

Combine that with $4000-$5000 deductibles....
 
reinoe said:
The ACA already in death spiral! That's hilarious! I figured it would at least take longer considering how much money people in health insurance got forced into paying for it. Yep. When "the health insurers will pay for a pool" what they meant is that for the first few years the money was pulled out of working individuals paychecks. The people who wrote the ACA were a bunch of slimeballs but it's also likely that the health insurance providers themselves made a conscious choice to do it too. Either way poor grunts like me actually footed the bill, not "health insurance providers".
Click to expand...

The health insurance providers initially were delighted to go along with the patently stupid healthcare bill. They envisioned massive profits from a captive customer base. And with a captive customer base, they had no incentive to compete for customers. Unfortunately for them as the rates have continued to go up every year since the bill has passed, the young and healthy has worked out that they are better off paying the penalty then footing the bill for obese middle aged couch potatoes. Thankfully President Trump has already began unraveling the patently stupid mandate.
 
Naturally we should accelerate the problem by removing the mandate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom