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Friday, February 5th, 2016

The Real Reasons Insurance Companies Are Complaining About Obamacare

Author:     Tierney Sneed
Source:     Talking Points Memo
Publication Date:     February 4, 2016, 6:00 AM EST
 Link: The Real Reasons Insurance Companies Are Complaining About Obamacare
Stephan:   I have been seeing grumpy comments from insurance companies about Obamacare recently. Here is a report that makes their issues. I find them outrageous but then I want a single payer system. We spend as a nation more on health care than any other developed country in the world. Yet we get very poor healthcare, and score badly on almost every outcome measure -- the World Health Organization ranks us as 37th. Those are facts. And it is also true that much of our poor rating tracks back to Red value states governed by Theocratic Rightist Republicans. It is amazing that we will not look at this data and it does not get discussed in public debates.

insurance exeSome insurance companies haven’t been shy about their criticisms of Obamacare lately, giving conservatives fodder for their political arguments that the law is a failure that is destroying the entire health care market.

But there is more going on than the surface level threats to leave ACA exchanges amid accusations that they’re not sustainable. These complaints are not just reflections of issues that insurers have had in adapting to the new law, but a way to influence how it evolves in the future, health care experts told TPM.

In other words, health insurance companies are settling in for the long haul and using a combination of public and private advocacy that is very familiar to other industries regulated at the federal level.

Adding to the current dynamic is the upcoming election. A new Congress and president, especially a Republican in the White House, could have major implications for the law and for the requirements the Department of Health and Human Services places on insurers.

“You can bet those insurers will make sure that they’re at the table and have as much leverage as […]

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