Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Ed Cone and Andrew Brod's Legacy, part 13; Aetna out of North Carolina ACA

"...Aetna announced Monday it will stop selling individual plans through the ACA next year in 11 of the 15 states where it had been participating, including North Carolina and South Carolina.

...Aetna, which sold individual health insurance coverage in 39 North Carolina counties, has said it expects to lose $300 million on plans sold through the ACA. Aetna will continue to sell individual health insurance in North Carolina, but not through the ACA marketplace.

While health insurance premiums increase almost every year, losing Aetna and United will leave consumers with few choices in 2017, insurance brokers and agents said.

...Aetna’s decision is the latest blow to President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy. While the ACA has brought coverage to millions – and reduced the number of uninsured North Carolinians by nearly a half million, the new markets have proven volatile for some of the largest insurers.

UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer, announced this spring that it would shrink its ACA participation in 2017 to only a few states because it expects losses from that business nationwide to total more than $1 billion for 2015 and 2016.

Blue Cross, the state’s biggest insurer, has lost about $1 billion on ACA plans in the past two years, but the losses were reduced to $405 million after compensation from federally-created assistance programs...

"Senior Obama administration officials" "no legal basis"
 "illegal" "unlawful" "contrived" 2013 "unappropriated" 

...[North Carolina's] insurance department approved a 32.5 percent rate increase for Blue Cross for 2016 as the company reeled from expenses incurred by sicker and older customers on ACA policies.

Earlier this year, [NC] warned federal health officials that the ACA has destabilized the state’s insurance market...

...the law is driving up insurance costs, reducing consumer options and generating unsustainable financial losses for the insurers...

Next year will be the fourth year for the Affordable Care Act markets that officials touted as a way to provide affordable options for individuals who aren’t covered by employer-sponsored plans...

“People coming in with expiring Aetna plans (will be) getting a depressing sticker-shock price increase when Blue Cross is the only offering,”...

...about 95 percent of the policies he sold through the ACA were with Aetna because Aetna’s least expensive plans were $300 to $400 a month cheaper than the least expensive Blue Cross plans.

...agents said they won’t be surprised if Blue Cross drops out of the individual health insurance market too.

...some ...will have to choose whether to pay the premium or pay the fine for not having insurance. For tax year 2017, the fine is 2.5 percent of total household adjusted gross income, or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, to a maximum of $2,085.

...a policy with a premium of $1,200 per month, but after the subsidy, the customer paid $52 a month. The policy had a $5,000 deductible, so each time the customer went to the doctor, until he met the high deductible, he would have had to pay the full price.

“He said, ‘I’ve got to pay $52 a month and I still can’t go to the doctor?’ And we the taxpayers were fortunate enough to pay $1,150 a month (the subsidy) for a man to get insurance but he couldn’t even go to the doctor.…That is ridiculous,”...

http://www.greensboro.com/ap/business/aetna-s-move-to-drop-n-c-insurance-market-will/article_8d59a1d3-7362-5c35-a6ee-66e155e6ee70.html
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How about Ed Cone and Andrew Brod explain why North Carolina's 20.6% Obamacare premium growth

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-about-ed-cone-and-andrew-brod.html

Ed Cone on Cone Health's success at stealing from patients and bankrupting families within our local overpriced healthcare monopoly

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-on-cone-healths-success-at.html

"Break the medical monopolies"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/break-medical-monopolies.html

UnitedHealth won't sell individual ACA plans for 2017 in North Carolina

Doctors need to make less

Medical device makers need to make less

Hospitals

Big Pharma

The legalized theft by the above needs to stop

They are bankrupting America's middle class to line their pockets with the help of all the politicians they bought

If you didn't make any money on it, you have been robbed

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/unitedhealth-wont-sell-individual-aca.html

"Blue Cross projects $400M loss in NC on ACA in just 2 years"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/andrew-brods-legacy-blue-cross-projects.html

ACA premiums in NC to rise sharply in 2016; Thanks Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/aca-premiums-in-nc-to-rise-sharply-in.html