Virginia's Largest Health Insurer Drops Out of Obamacare Individual Market For 2018

Townhall ^ | 8/11/2017

[Altura Ct.]

Just weeks before the 2018 Obamacare open enrollment period is set to begin, Virginia's largest health insurer has pulled of the individual marketplace.

Anthem is leaving the system, citing overwhelming costs and unstable markets. More from Forbes:

“Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating Individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage,” Anthem said in a statement Friday afternoon. “As a result, the continued uncertainty makes it difficult for us to offer Individual health plans statewide in Virginia.”

Effective in January of 2018, Anthem said it will "not participate on the individual exchange in Virginia and will reduce its plan offering and will only offer off-exchange plans in Washington and Scott Counties and the city of Bristol, VA."

The news comes as Republicans struggle to find a solution to the Obamacare disaster and failed to get a "skinny repeal" of the legislation through the Senate in July. President Trump has repeatedly called on Republican leadership to revisit the issue in order to fulfill the longtime promise of repeal and replace.

Earlier this year Virginia's other major insurer, Aetna, also pulled out of the market.

Aetna is throwing in the towel in Virginia after suffering big losses in its Obamacare business.

The company said Wednesday that it won't participate in the state's individual market -- either on the Obamacare exchange or outside of it -- in 2018. Though it has greatly downsized its participation in Obamacare, Aetna (AET) said it could still lose more than $200 million in its individual market products this year. That's on top of the nearly $700 million it's lost in the three years after the exchanges opened in 2014.

[Spktyr]

Let it burn.

[Oscar in Batangas]

Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!
Obama’s Fault!

[cherry]

story in my local rag stated that TRUMP is to blame for all of these insurance drop outs...not kidding..

[SteveH]

it seems that the liberal strategy, which no doubt will be reflected in the MSM ad nauseam in coming weeks and months, is to blame Republican Congressional lack of support and cooperation for any and every Obamacare failure including financial failure.

Wasn’t Obamacare promised, by Democrats at the time it was passed by Congress, to be eventually self supporting, in contrast to requiring indefinite subsidies?

[lewislynn]

story in my local rag stated that TRUMP is to blame for all of these insurance drop outs...not kidding..

(loose canon) Newt Gingrich said almost the same thing the other day regarding the failure of the Senate to pass a bill. I swear sometimes I think the guy has touretts and just uncontrollably runs off at the mouth.

[Rome2000]

God forbid they should jeopardize their record profits.

[kaehurowing]

Inactions have consequences, Congress.

[Kickass Conservative]

Don’t be fooled.

This makes the Single Payer Communists happy as Pigs in Sh!t.

[kearnyirish2]

He probably is - and I’m glad. Once he said the IRS wouldn’t take action on tax returns without health insurance info, he basically eliminated the individual mandate. Now these insurers, instead of having half of their insured older/sicker people and the other half younger, healthier, and involuntarily paying into it (theoretical numbers), they could conceivably end up with 100% older/sicker people with no penalties on the others to subsidize it.

[Liz]

Now the insurers: instead of having half of their insured older/sicker people and the other half younger, healthier, and involuntarily paying into it (as Obama envisioned), they could conceivably end up with 100% older/sicker people with no penalties on the others to subsidize it.

"Now, I don't want you insurers to worry; when you start
losing money, we are going to jump in and bail you all out."

Obama Siphoned off Billions in GSE Dividends To Prop Up OBAMACARE

ZeroHedge ^ | April 2, 2017 / FR Posted on by Zakeet

Earlier this month, Harvard Ph.D. Jerome Corsi of InfoWars (@jerome_corsi) and a CPA "who worked for two years for a major U.S. accounting firm as an outside auditor for Freddie Mac," confirmed a 2012 scheme hatched by the Obama administration.

The audacious looting involved funnelling hundreds of billions in dividends from Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prop up the failing Obamacare program - by paying subsidies to insurers to remain in the system. [Snip]

The conclusion reached by Corsi and others is that this was probably illegal. In fact, House Republicans actually sued the Obama Administration in 2014 over the fact that the subsidies to insurers weren't appropriated by congress and won, which the Obama administration appealed.

Zerohedge and the Atlanta Journal Constitution pointed out last week, the Trump administration has until May 22nd to decide whether or not to pursue the appeal: (Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...

================================================

The Royal Idiot doesn't know much........ but he learned in "the community" that laws don't matter.

The half-caste misfit could care less about US laws: that tax dollars designated by Congress for one use cannot be appropriated for another.

===============================================

AND THIS--

O/Care architect, MIT economics prof Jonathan Gruber, argued that perceived rising premium costs are really a one-time increase in 2016 to cover “massively underpriced” policies for the first two years of the 2010 law. He also said the increase “fixed” the problem because insurance companies were seeking signs of profitability and talking optimistically about continued participation in the program.

I guess Obama didn't let Gruber in on the "billion dollar secret."
Probably Obama was depending on Gruber's stupidity (smirk).

[mewzilla]

If insurance companies conspire to drop coverage nationwide at the same time in order to get Congress to authorize a bailout, is that illegal? Collusion? Extortion?

[AppyPappy]

Obamacare is still in effect but Trump is to blame because....science.

[Brilliant]

You don’t say? Who’d have guessed?

[kearnyirish2]

These insurers loved this law when they believed it created a herd of involuntary customers for them; even before Trump’s election they realized they’d been snookered and started dropping out.

I don’t think they expect the government to bail them out so much as apply the screws to the new herd of serfs - and those serfs would bail them out...

[usconservative]

story in my local rag stated that TRUMP is to blame for all of these insurance drop outs...not kidding..

Did they claim it's because President Trump is "withholding" bailout funds for them?

Truth is, the "bailout funds" that were built into Obamacare would've only prolonged the inevitable. Once the free money was gone, all the insurance companies were going to pull out of Obama(care) anyway.

[Liz]

I believe insurers got “gaslighted” by the half/caste idiot.......bamboozled into not trusting their own instincts.

They had years of involvement in the system-—THEY HAD TO KNOW Obama’s cockamamie plan wouldn’t work.

He dangled promises of billions in bailouts in front of their eyes——then, like a practiced con man-—he reneged on his promises.

The plan was so fraught w/ failure-—so ill-conceived-—all America suffered under O’s deluded scheme.

[Gay State Conservative]

The Rats designed ObamaCare to fail

FROM THE VERY START!

[Machavelli]

Check the bottom line of the Insurance companies and their manager level salaries. The government is still giving them billions in subsidies. The government is the problem. Cut the purse strings, now! Push for a convention of the states.

[mewzilla]

And that doesn’t include the Medicaid contracts some insurers have with states....