MANY Insurers Expressing Doubts About ObamaCare

Many critics of ObamaCare have predicted that, at some point, insurers would begin to exit the marketplaces, in a massive exodus from the sinking ship that is our current healthcare system. Supporters, of course, vehemently deny that anything like that will take place. Those supporters should look around.

It began, last year, with United Healthcare saying that they'd lost $475 million in the Obamacare exchanges, and were considering pulling out of the marketplaces in 2017. Critics weren't surprised, and predicted that it was the beginning of the eventual exodus, while supporters screamed foul and claimed that the announcement was politically motivated. And for a while, they stood alone.

Then, last week, Anthem stepped forward and admitted they weren't seeing the growth that they had expected in the marketplaces. BCBS of North Carolina recently admitted that they would see losses of around $400 million for their first two years, and this in spite of a recent 32.5% average rate increase.

That’s not to mention the fact that more than half of the non-profit insurance co-ops that ObamaCare created have since failed.

Turns out that not only is ObamaCare failing to attract enough young and healthy, it has also encouraged others to game the system by waiting until they get sick to sign up for coverage, outside the three-month open enrollment window.

Aetna and UnitedHealth say that these people use more health care than those who sign during open enrollment and in many cases drop coverage once their medical bills get paid.

This, by the way, is precisely what ObamaCare critics predicted would happen. Guaranteeing insurance coverage to everyone, no matter how sick, and charging those with preexisting illnesses artificially low rates, provides an enormous incentive to cheat. States that had tried these reforms ended up creating premium “death spirals” and wrecking their individual markets.

And now Cigna, the nation's fifth-largest insurer, has declared that their profits are declining. Though they did not specifically detail how their marketplace plans are doing, only an ideological drone who was hopelessly committed to ObamaCare would deny that this has all the appearances of a growing trend.

Cigna didn't indicate Thursday exactly how its marketplace plans are faring. CEO David Cordani said in December that the company hasn't made any money selling them, but doesn't intend to pull out.

Make no mistake, folks, this is starting to look more and more like the beginnings of hard times for ObamaCare, with the dreaded "death spiral" in rates coming... if the insurers don't bail on the marketplaces first.

And I know that passionate liberals won't admit this. They can't. But at least they can admit that things aren't going as planned, and that maybe ObamaCare has flaws and is need of reform. Already.