Uh-oh: Ny seems looking for a ride around the ObamaCare death spiral.
Word came Wednesday that Empire State health-care insurers plan huge hikes in premiums for individual ObamaCare policies – 17.3 %, on average, but as much as 89 percent in a minumum of one case.
That's going to hurt: Wages have been growing just by a little over 3 % a year.
It's a national trend: Plans in several other states also face double-digit bumps.
Why such steep spikes? Like others, Oscar Insurance cites rising medical costs, expiring government subsidies and customers who require “more care than we expected.”
And that last cost-driver – sicker-than-expected patients – is a built-in, fatal flaw.
Under the ObamaCare law, healthy patients must pay as much as sick ones. That pushes healthy folks to skip insurance altogether and pay the penalty instead.
Upshot? Insurers get sicker, costlier customers and have to – yep – push-up rates.
“If these requests [to charge more] aren't approved, you are going to see more carriers leaving the market,” says CareConnect CEO Alan Murray. Nationwide, lots of insurers have previously named it quits: UnitedHealth is fleeing 27 states, including Nj.
Companies that place it out will have to pick up the costlier patients other insurers drop – and the death spiral will take another turn. And all through ObamaCare's slow implosion, Americans will pay ever-stiffer costs – for lousy insurance, with high deductibles and limited choices.
That leaves a decision for the next White House occupant: Pull the plug on ObamaCare and usher in something which works – or simply let Americans continue suffering.
