SavannahMann
Platinum Member
- Nov 16, 2016
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Humana healthcare, a big insurance company that was one of those working through the Obamacare program to offer individual plans, is pulling out.
Humana Continues to Build Upon Proven Strategy Following Termination of Merger with Aetna; Provides 2017 Financial Guidance; Announces Capital Deployment Plans | Humana Healthcare
So another insurer is pulling out. The obvious question is why? Well it is once you get past the I told you so crowing of the anti Obamacare folks.
The reason why the individual market is failing is simple. Employers are required to provide the insurance to employees. Young healthy people were getting their insurance through their parents, or through their employers. Or they decided they didn't need it based upon cost. Those are the young healthy people who were supposed to float the order or more in need of care people in the original vision of the program.
Employer based plans are run based upon the health of the employees who are covered. The individual marketplace was never going to have enough young healthy people without insurance but with the money to afford the program. So Humana is following the example of others, leaving the marketplace to reduce the losses on the financial report.
Now some may sneer and say that Humana is just a greedy corporation. That is just nonsense. Every corporation has a need to meet expenses and a bit of profit. Just like all of us as a matter of fact.
At the end of they year you take a look back and examine your financial health. You look at the losses you endured and the gains. Some are rare like Hurricane loss or severe storm damage. Others are fixed like house payments and still others are flexible like electric and cable. You can use a little less electrical and reduce the bill is what flexible means.
You can probably absorb a little loss once in a while. You can't afford to absorb a loss every year. Nobody else can either.
If Humana lost money year after year they would go bankrupt just like you would. The ACA operated on a flawed premise. The idea that the young and healthy would pay in to support those who were less so. Perhaps they would pay a little, but paying big bills for something you don't use is counterintuitive. The bills were hundreds or even thousands every month.
This is why it was destined to fail. Obamacare was an effort to create a privatized National Health Service. Voluntary participation was always going to be problematic. So they came up with the fines/tax to incentivize people to join. The reality was the fine/tax was going to be cheaper than the plan.
This was the second failure. The idea that people would pay more to get something rather than pay less because they had nothing. If you were going to be fined $500 for not having insurance you would be willing to pay $1,000 and get insurance. It would only cost you $500 more after all.
As for me, I get my coverage through my employer. I got it through my employer when Bush was President too.
To accomplish the goals laid out socialized medicine was required. Some people viewed the ACA as a stepping stone to Socialized medicine. That was just stupid.
The analogy I used at the time was this. If a Mechanic screws up your car you aren't going to pay him to fix the car right this time. If a Surgeon amputates the wrong leg you aren't going to tell him to try again.
You are going with someone else, and that someone would not be Democrats.
Every year the costs are going up for the individual plans, and every year more of the young and healthy were bailing on the expensive and in their view unnecessary individual marketplace plans.
Obamacare was always doomed. I believe the Democrats always knew that too.
Humana Continues to Build Upon Proven Strategy Following Termination of Merger with Aetna; Provides 2017 Financial Guidance; Announces Capital Deployment Plans | Humana Healthcare
So another insurer is pulling out. The obvious question is why? Well it is once you get past the I told you so crowing of the anti Obamacare folks.
The reason why the individual market is failing is simple. Employers are required to provide the insurance to employees. Young healthy people were getting their insurance through their parents, or through their employers. Or they decided they didn't need it based upon cost. Those are the young healthy people who were supposed to float the order or more in need of care people in the original vision of the program.
Employer based plans are run based upon the health of the employees who are covered. The individual marketplace was never going to have enough young healthy people without insurance but with the money to afford the program. So Humana is following the example of others, leaving the marketplace to reduce the losses on the financial report.
Now some may sneer and say that Humana is just a greedy corporation. That is just nonsense. Every corporation has a need to meet expenses and a bit of profit. Just like all of us as a matter of fact.
At the end of they year you take a look back and examine your financial health. You look at the losses you endured and the gains. Some are rare like Hurricane loss or severe storm damage. Others are fixed like house payments and still others are flexible like electric and cable. You can use a little less electrical and reduce the bill is what flexible means.
You can probably absorb a little loss once in a while. You can't afford to absorb a loss every year. Nobody else can either.
If Humana lost money year after year they would go bankrupt just like you would. The ACA operated on a flawed premise. The idea that the young and healthy would pay in to support those who were less so. Perhaps they would pay a little, but paying big bills for something you don't use is counterintuitive. The bills were hundreds or even thousands every month.
This is why it was destined to fail. Obamacare was an effort to create a privatized National Health Service. Voluntary participation was always going to be problematic. So they came up with the fines/tax to incentivize people to join. The reality was the fine/tax was going to be cheaper than the plan.
This was the second failure. The idea that people would pay more to get something rather than pay less because they had nothing. If you were going to be fined $500 for not having insurance you would be willing to pay $1,000 and get insurance. It would only cost you $500 more after all.
As for me, I get my coverage through my employer. I got it through my employer when Bush was President too.
To accomplish the goals laid out socialized medicine was required. Some people viewed the ACA as a stepping stone to Socialized medicine. That was just stupid.
The analogy I used at the time was this. If a Mechanic screws up your car you aren't going to pay him to fix the car right this time. If a Surgeon amputates the wrong leg you aren't going to tell him to try again.
You are going with someone else, and that someone would not be Democrats.
Every year the costs are going up for the individual plans, and every year more of the young and healthy were bailing on the expensive and in their view unnecessary individual marketplace plans.
Obamacare was always doomed. I believe the Democrats always knew that too.
