Meltdown: 1.4 Million New Obamacare Cancellations Coming Soon

Townhall.com ^ | October 14, 2016 | Guy Benson

[Kaslin]

I do believe someone famous once said of Obamacare, "if you like your plan, you can keep it." And by "once said," I mean, "said over and over again, ad nauseam." Not only was that promise a lie -- which the White House knew at the time -- for millions of Americans who were booted off of their existing coverage when the law was first implemented, it's an ongoing lie for consumers who are participating in the law's exchanges. The The next big shake-up is looming, directly caused by Obamacare's unsustainable model and lack of affordability -

A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise. At least 1.4 million people in 32 states will lose the Obamacare plan they have now, according to state officials contacted by Bloomberg. That’s largely caused by Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and some state or regional insurers quitting the law’s markets for individual coverage. Sign-ups for Obamacare coverage begin next month. Fallout from the quitting insurers has emerged as the latest threat to the law, which is also a major focal point in the U.S. presidential election. While it’s not clear what all the consequences of the departing insurers will be, interviews with regulators and insurance customers suggest that plans will be fewer and more expensive, and may not include the same doctors and hospitals. It may also mean that instead of growing in 2017, Obamacare could shrink.

"Keep your doctor" was also an Obama pledge, as you'll of course recall.  As we keep saying, and as more Democrats are being forced to admit, the law is failing. And those ramifications are just in the individual market. If Democrats get their way (again) by implementing a "public option" or eventually single-payer, many millions people with satisfactory employer-based coverage should expect to be uprooted and shunted into government-run programs. In the meantime, Obamacare is still hurting people. The Washington Post paints a dreary portrait in North Carolina:

As major insurers jilt their ACA customers, nowhere in the country will more people be left with only a single insurer when the marketplaces open for a fourth year of business. These defections are causing turbulence for a quarter-million North Carolinians whose insurance companies are leaving the state — and for the main insurer that will remain. Such turbulence is especially palpable in the rolling Piedmont in and around Greensboro. Of more than 30,000 people here who have gained ACA insurance, 80 percent have been relying on United Healthcare or Aetna Health, the companies pulling out at the end of December. “Wow, it is going to be huge,” said Natalie Cunningham, a 30-year-old hairdresser who had been uninsured for years before she got her first ACA coverage in 2014. Her health plan enabled her to see a chiropractor who diagnosed her neck and back pains as arthritis that probably was a remnant of a decade-old car accident. As of a week ago, Cunningham had not yet received the letter required of her current insurer, an Aetna subsidiary called Coventry, informing her that she needs to find different coverage. But she is like many residents in worrying how much insurance will cost in the coming year. Or whether they will be able to continue to see the same doctors. Or how their narrowing choice will affect the hopscotch they’ve been playing year to year in pursuit of a health plan they can afford.

It's a trifecta of betrayals: People can't keep their plans, are being forced to pay more, and have sharply diminished options for care.  I'll leave you with Ed Morrissey's analysis of Obamacare rationing. This mess is starting to run on fumes in hard-hit areas, as Congressional Republicans are ramping up legal pressure against the Obama administration's alleged scheme to skirt the law and bail out insurers through backdoor payments:

BOOM House files powerful brief urging dismissal with prejudice of Risk Corridors class action.https://t.co/i5acrTDrEV pic.twitter.com/FVka73aCIm— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 14, 2016

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Did you airbrush the fly out of that picture?

[Ethrane]

Sure they’ll get their notice on like, say, November 9th.

Watch.

[blam]

I read today, that in the last 48 months, more people applied for a gun license than applied for ObamaCare.

[Tzimisce]

Good.

I’m glad.

People like me were SCREAMING WARNINGS about Obamacare.

And we were laughed at, sneered at, given the finger, called racists, called corporate tools, etc.

So now everything we said is coming to pass.

You voted for it America.
Enjoy it.

[FlingWingFlyer]

“Wildly popular” Obamacare cancellations as the bobbleheads in the “media” might say.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I read today, that in the last 48 months, more people applied for a gun license than applied for ObamaCare.

Love it.

[jmacusa]

So help me God I HATE this little m’fer with a fury that is white hot. There is an unspoken civil war in my family. my four younger siblings love this son of a bitch and they’re voting for The Old Slag Clinton. We haven’t spoken to each other in months.

[Fungi]

So tell me, of these 1.4 million cancellations, how many are democrats? Can we assume these rats will vote for another four years of the same from Hildabeast? If so, liberals do have a mental disease, one that cannot be cured, and with no insurance, they have no “hope,” the same glorified “hope” their vaunted “messiah,” the feckless fool on the hill, promised them. Fools, a pathetic lot.

[Paladin2]

Pepe ate it.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I knew Obamacare was the path to single-payer.

$600 million to build a website that didn't work. C'mon. A website can be built for less than $250,000.

[dsrtsage]

If Trump wins, the media will start playing this story at volume 11 and will blame it on Trump. On November 9th everything transitions from Bush’s fault to Trump’s fault.

[smokingfrog]

I’m one of them.

[Kaslin]

It’s a well known fact that Liberalism is a mental disease

[little jeremiah]

And the number of people listening/watching/reading the msm will fall even more than it is now.

[Gene Eric]

Got bit by twice by cancellations. HIP plan canceled when Obamacare took effect, and last year when the health insurer was forced to shut down.

Good luck. I know what a PITA it is.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

What’s that brown stuff around his mouth?....

Oh....nevermind.

[grey_whiskers]

A website can be built for less than $250,000.

And a website that doesn't work can be built for even less than that. ;-)

[EQAndyBuzz]

I make good money and I can’t afford the deductible. I have come to the conclusion that I will be paying 10 bucks a month to multiple doctors for the rest of my life. Problem is between my wife, my son and myself, our prescriptions now total 1100 a month. That’s a 1000% increase from my last insurance.

[prairiebreeze]

It’s especially hard when it impacts families. I hope it works out for you and your siblings.