President Trump declared ObamaCare is within a “death spiral” on Thursday as House Republicans were getting ready to vote on a bill that would repeal and replace the health care plan.
“Death spiral! ‘Aetna will exit Obamacare markets in VA in 2021, citing expected losses on INDV plans this year,'” Trump tweeted, linking to a CNBC report about how exactly the insurance provider is backing away from covering the Affordable Healthcare Act due to expected huge losses.
The report cited emails from an Aetna spokesman saying the insurance giant would still retreat in the coverage.
“Despite significantly reducing our exchange footprint, our individual commercial products may potentially lose more than $200 million in 2021,” said T.J. Crawford within the email. “Based on that financial risk, and growing uncertainty in the marketplace, we won't offer on- or off-exchange individual plans in Virginia for 2021.”
Aetna, which said it will take out of Iowa’s ObamaCare market in Iowa in 2021, will be left selling individual plans in Delaware and Nebraska.
The GOP-backed American Health Care Act continues to be revised since House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill from the floor in March after more conservative Republicans said it didn’t go far enough to outright repeal and replace former President Obama’s signature health care legislation.
But with provisions targeted at getting those conservative members on board, Republican leaders in the House believed they'd the necessary votes to ditch ObamaCare.
“We will be voting around the healthcare votes tomorrow. Because we have enough votes. It’ll pass. It’s a good bill,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday night.
