So, to sum up: Trump has offered scant details about how he would replace ObamaCare. But what little he has said is philisophically consistent with the arguments in favor of single-payer, a policy approach that he has praised in the past.
The whole irony of this is that right now, Sanders and Hillary Clinton are in the midst of a heated debate in which Sanders is arguing in favor of single-payer and Clinton is saying it would go too far to be politically feasible.
Should Clinton and Trump be the nominees, it will have meant that Democratic voters will have rejected the candidate pushing single-payer health care and Republicans will have embraced him.
Major insurer UnitedHealth, which caused a stir in the fall by saying it might leave ObamaCare, lost $720 million from the individual health insurance market last year. UnitedHealth said in its financial report released Tuesday that the $720 million comes from losses “related to the individual exchange-compliant insurance business.” About $245 million of that money was for “advance recognition of losses” in 2016 in the individual marketplace.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, half the uninsured who are eligible for subsidized coverage through the exchanges have refused to purchase it. As a result, those remaining in the insurance pool have tended to be sicker and older — and they’ve used more health services than insurers expected.
How much more? According to the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., insurers collectively swallowed $2.5 billion in unexpected medical expenses from exchange enrollees in 2014.
Democrats like to talk a lot about being the party of choice, but under Obamacare, individuals are finding their choices increasingly limited. At its core, Obamacare forces individuals to purchase government-approved insurance policies and precludes them from buying plans that might be more in line with their healthcare needs. Though Obamacare’s defenders argue that the requirements imposed on health insurance plans only serve to guarantee that individuals have better coverage, in reality, what’s happening is that the law is driving insurers to limit choices.
Big news: UnitedHealth Group slashed its earnings outlook today, citing new problems related to Obamacare, and told investors it may exit the program’s exchanges. “In recent weeks, growth expectations for individual exchange participation have tempered industrywide, co-operatives have failed, and market data has signaled higher risks and more difficulties while our own claims experience has deteriorated,” Stephen J. Hemsley, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, explained in a press release.
From November 15 to December 15, a small business that purchases a plan in the Obamacare-created Small Business Options Program marketplace does not have to meet participation requirements, which require that businesses with up to 50 employees ensure that at least 75 percent of their employees enroll. The annual window comes at a time when small businesses haven’t taken to the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, created to offer more plans for small businesses.