Humana abandoning Obamacare
Finding out what’s in it. Humana, one of the nation’s largest heathcare companies, has decided to leave almost half of its Obamacare markets next year.
Humana, one of the nation’s top health insurers, is pulling out of ObamaCare plans in all but a handful of states after a year of nearly $1 billion in losses. The company plans to exit nearly half of its Obamacare markets next year, the company announced during an earnings report Thursday. It will take part in “no more” than 11 state marketplaces, down from 19 states this year, the company said. [emphasis mine]
Remember, it was the insurance companies that lobbied the hardest for Obamacare, figuring they would clean up once the government forced everyone to buy their product. In looking at the numbers above, $1 billion in loses in one year alone, it sure seems that strategy has backfired big time on the insurance companies.
Then again, how could they have possibly known this would happen? No one anticipated this at all, except for those evil tea partiers and those racist conservatives. And who listens to them?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Finding out what’s in it. Humana, one of the nation’s largest heathcare companies, has decided to leave almost half of its Obamacare markets next year.
Humana, one of the nation’s top health insurers, is pulling out of ObamaCare plans in all but a handful of states after a year of nearly $1 billion in losses. The company plans to exit nearly half of its Obamacare markets next year, the company announced during an earnings report Thursday. It will take part in “no more” than 11 state marketplaces, down from 19 states this year, the company said. [emphasis mine]
Remember, it was the insurance companies that lobbied the hardest for Obamacare, figuring they would clean up once the government forced everyone to buy their product. In looking at the numbers above, $1 billion in loses in one year alone, it sure seems that strategy has backfired big time on the insurance companies.
Then again, how could they have possibly known this would happen? No one anticipated this at all, except for those evil tea partiers and those racist conservatives. And who listens to them?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Related tangent but the source article is behind a paywall at the Wall Street Journal. (7-22-16)
In brief, 2 major points;
-There are mergers currently proposed between the likes of United Health, Cigna, Humana, and others & sorry.. but I am not recalling who-wants-to-buy-whom. It apparently has the effect of turning the top 8 insurers, into 5. (they need to consolidate, to cut “duplication” of services and “divest” of “legacy expenses.” > that’s ominous…)
-Antitrust division of the DOJ filed suit today, hoping to block at least 2 mergers, on the grounds it will impede “the current high quality & cost savings under the ACA,” & violate antitrust laws in general. (how ironic is that– think about it.)
Top 2 insurers, each manage roughly 30-40 million accounts. And interestingly, but not unexpectedly, each wants to exit as many Obamacare “exchanges” as they can, each lost about 1 billion in the past 1-2 years, but each makes money on their non-exchange policies. Each book about 100 billion gross/year, and their mandated pay-out is like 82%, (or in other words, they get to keep roughly 18% for administration) (and that pay-out rate ratchet ups over time) on-average. Payouts on exchange-policies are something like 150% (they lose 50 cents on the dollar)
It’s a massive cross-(tri)-subsidy (across time & space, “everybody”) between regular group policies, the government “exchange” variants & associated subsidies, and straight Medicaid/Medicare policies.
The incentives are perverse, & cash-flows, are all in the wrong direction.
A fairly good article, clarifying my previous babble
http://ctmirror.org/2016/07/21/justice-dept-sues-to-block-aetna-humana-anthem-cigna-mergers/
Loretta Lynch to the rescue…or something.
We are through the Looking Glass.