Posted on 09/15/2015 1:19:51 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Iowa’s experience with Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has been turbulent. In 2014, state officials agreed to expand Medicaid, despite the fact that the Obama administration denied virtually all of their requests for flexibility.
Iowa’s expansion was loosely modeled after Arkansas’ Obamacare expansion. Under Iowa’s “Marketplace Choice” waiver, able-bodied adults above the poverty line would receive Medicaid benefits through Obamacare exchange plans.
The program has seen double-digit premium hikes, one carrier becoming insolvent, both carriers eventually leaving the program, skyrocketing enrollment, cost overruns, and changes that make Medicaid enrollees less accountable. With that unfolding, it’s no wonder state officials announced in July 2015 that they were closing the Medicaid expansion waiver.
Despite hopes of “competition,” Iowa’s Medicaid expansion waiver attracted just two insurance carriers: Coventry and CoOportunity Health – one of the new “consumer oriented and operated plans” created by Obamacare. Both insurers eventually stopped enrolling new able-bodied adults under the waiver.
In 2014, CoOportunity Health experienced significant financial problems, recording a net operating loss of $163 million. The insurer blamed the expansion program as a primary culprit leading to its financial tailspin.
In order to help deal with these massive losses, CoOportunity hiked premiums by an average of 21.2 percent. In September 2014, the Obama administration provided the carrier with a $32.7 million taxpayer-funded bailout. That’s on top of the $112.6 million in federal loans it had already received.
But the insurer’s financial condition continued to deteriorate. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Just wait until state legislators are faced with tax increases and/or benefit cuts. The tar is heating up and the geese are being plucked.
Everything Obama touches turns to crap.
The state can also charge up to $8 for unnecessary emergency room use.
... as intended. By design. According to plan.
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