You Can Keep Your Healthcare -- Unless The Company Determines Obamacare's Going to Kill Its Business
A friend who's survived breast cancer now needs to find a new health insurer, thanks to Aetna leaving the individual insurance market in California. The country's biggest insurer, UnitedHealth Group, has followed Aetna's lead.
Chad Terhune writes in the LA Times:
UnitedHealth said it had notified state regulators that it would leave the state's individual market at year-end and force about 8,000 customers to find new coverage. Last month, Aetna Inc., the nation's third-largest health insurer, made a similar move affecting about 50,000 existing policyholders.Both companies will keep a major presence in California, focusing instead on large and small employers.
What's most idiotic about the way this is working out is that more and more people today change jobs with frequency and a vast number of people are freelancers altogether.
The "Affordable" Care Act is an exceptionally ill-conceived mess.
The Insurance Commissioner gets it:
The departure of another big-name insurer raised concerns about the effect of reduced competition on California consumers."I don't think this is a good result for consumers," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "It means less choice, less competition and even more consolidation of the individual market with three big carriers."
Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente and Blue Shield of California dominate the state's individual health market with a collective 87% market share, according to Citigroup data from 2011. UnitedHealth was a small player among individual policyholders with a 2% share. Aetna was slightly larger with a 5% market share.
Anthem is a unit of WellPoint Inc., the nation's second-largest health insurer.
UnitedHealth and Aetna cannot reenter California's individual market for five years after they leave, according to regulators.
Yeah, among other things, this is moving the market in the exact wrong direction. Health insurance needs to be less coupled to employment, not more so. Also note what's happening here: they are pulling out in advance of the exchanges being established. Likely, when the time comes, there is only going to be one carrier participating in the exchange, and if you don't have insurance through your employer, you will pay whatever that carrier charges. As I said yesterday, you will get a Chevy but pay for a Cadillac.
Cousin Dave at July 3, 2013 6:20 AM
And now employers get a year's reprieve from the employer mandate.
On the other hand, when can a president unilaterally suspend the relevant law, particularly one that spells out 31 December 2013 as the final date without an employer mandate?
This is a lawless administration.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 3, 2013 6:55 AM
As I said yesterday, you will get a Chevy but pay for a Cadillac.
Good.
Maybe then people will finally get it in their thick heads that there's no such thing as a free lunch. You want European style socialism, you better be ready for European style taxes.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 3, 2013 6:58 AM
The elections are more important than the law. It's not a government, it's a criminal conspiracy masquerading as one.
MarkD at July 3, 2013 7:04 AM
...so, everything is going according to plan, what's the problem.
Or are you saying that you didn't think this was the plan? Once there isn't an individual insurer in CA anymore... then the govt will step in, pick one of the big 3 to administer it, und viola! Single payer government healthcare.
At this point it only seems like conspiracy theory, because it's so straightforward.
SwissArmyD at July 3, 2013 9:58 AM
The reason for this is so that no-information voters will still vote for Democrats because the full disaster of Obamacare won't really be hitting them yet. The political ads that are saying "We haven't seen the full damage yet," will be ignored because the mandate was delayed. The voters will say "Well I don't see any problem with it." But then after the election is probably when most of the small businesses will start cutting.
Because Obamacare is being run by the Treasury and IRS which is under control of the Executive branch. They can come up with any and all the excuses in the world why they can't implement it on the original date. The only way to get the original enforcement date back is for Congress to sue the Executive in the D.C. circuit court, and get a favorable ruling by then.
I have no faith in the D.C. circuit court.
Jim P. at July 3, 2013 3:09 PM
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