Obamacare: The crazy gets even crazier!
Minnesota, Tennessee and Illinois exchanges are collapsing under weight of insane system.
Bill Clinton characterizes Obamacare as “the craziest thing in the world.”
True, that was before TapeGate and Wikileaks…. but there is still plenty of crazy to go around.
In the past few days, a prominent governor said that Obamacare was not sustainable. The crazy part about it? It was a Democratic governor who was once a big fan!
Minnesota’s Democratic governor said Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act is “no longer affordable,” a stinging critique from a state leader who strongly embraced the law just a few years ago.
Gov. Mark Dayton made the comments while addressing questions about Minnesota’s fragile health insurance market, where individual plans are facing double-digit increases after all insurers threatened to exit the market entirely in 2017.
…”The reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for increasing numbers of people,” Dayton said, calling on Congress to fix the law to address rising costs and market stability.
In fact, Dayton once hailed Obamacare as the apex of progressive governance and made sure the DFL-controlled legislature quickly approved the Mnsure, which is state insurance exchange.
Meanwhile, the crazy has spread to Tennessee. The state’s highest-ranked hospital will be out of network for all Obamacare customers in 2017, after Blue Cross’s sudden withdrawal from the state’s insurance marketplace.
…Vanderbilt University Medical Center confirmed to the Washington Examiner that it will be outside the networks of medical providers covered by the three insurers selling marketplace plans for 2017.
The hospital system, which is ranked nationally in nine adult and 10 pediatric specialties, is in network this year for Tennessee residents with Blue Cross marketplace plans. But Blue Cross announced in September it is withdrawing from the major urban areas of Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville, where Vanderbilt is located.
Back in Obama’s home-state of Illinois, never a sane place to begin with, the number of insurers offering PPO plans has whittled down to one as providers have fled the state exchange.
…Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will be the only insurer offering PPO health insurance plans on the state’s Obamacare exchange next year, according to information released Friday by the state Department of Insurance.
That’s down from five insurers that offered individual PPO plans on the exchange this year. Many consumers prefer PPO health plans because, unlike HMO plans, they allow patients to see specialist doctors without a referral and see physicians who are out-of-network, albeit at higher costs.
The reduced choices were not unexpected, following the exit of several insurers from Illinois’ exchange. Aetna, its Coventry brand, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare subsidiary Harken Health and Land of Lincoln all announced this year they wouldn’t offer individual plans on the exchange next year. Many insurers have cited financial struggles as their reason for abandoning the exchange….
Will voters weigh the collapse of Obamacare as they head to the polls in November?
They would be crazy not to!
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Comments
Many voters have no idea of the financial state of Obamacare and are less than interested or concerned, they just want their free stuff. They vote DEMOCRAT.
NC is down to just one carrier, BC/BS of NC, which wants out too, but will stay in one more season only after premium rate increases of 25% and insane deductibles.
Exactly the same outcome here in Alaska. Only Premera BC/BS remains. Modal Health dismissed due to lack of capital to cover claims. Yearly premiums and deductible for individual totaled $24000 before the new rate hike….
“Unexpectedly” The next president will need to deal with this. The old system COULD be resuscitated, which by any normal definition would constitute “healthcare reform.” Cheaper, more options, etc. The alternative is to go to government single payer, however you style it, which is what the Left means. Not going to bet on the first.
Will voters weigh the collapse of Obamacare as they head to the polls in November?
Of course. And they’ll blame the Republicans for screwing up Obo the Clown’s brilliant health insurance
scamplan.Obamacare failure was in the plans all along. What they really wanted was single payer – that way we can ALL enjoy the medical system that the VA is now providing our vets.
Documentation compliance and regulatory compliance are the bulk of the cost increases as far as I can see. There will always be interim increases associated with diagnosis and treatment modalities as new technologies are introduced and implemented, but the government imposed regulatory costs are what I believe is collapsing the medical system.
I just said, “NO!”.
That’s proven very affordable… (Knock wood.)
Half the voters only “know” what Hillary’s campaign spokesmen (the press) tell them.