After suffering $1 billion in losses over the past year, Humana has had enough. On Thursday, one of the nation’s top five health insurance companies announced it was pulling out of “substantially all” Obamacare markets.
According to The Hill, the announcement came during an earnings report in which the company announced the billion-dollar loss and further reduced its exposure to Obamacare plans by announcing it would only participate in 11 state Obamacare exchanges.
That’s down from 19 last year. The report also said that it expected premiums from the markets to total between $750 million and $1 billion, far less than the $3.4 billion projected last year — the latest sign that enrollment in President Barack Obama’s signature program is flagging badly.
So, how is Obama taking this? Is he willing to work with companies to make American health care more competitive?
No, of course not. He’s getting punitive: The Hill reported that Humana’s official announcement that it was pulling out of “substantially all” Obamacare markets came on “the same day that the Obama administration announced it would step in to block a multibillion-dollar merger between Humana and Aetna.”
So either a) Obama suddenly likes competition in the health insurance market, just not enough to let companies compete across state lines or b) he decided to punish Humana for not being willing to lose money to advance his agenda. I’m going with b.
Humana isn’t the only company that has announced a retreat from the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. UnitedHealth Group already announced that, due to losses, it would be exiting most Obamacare markets.
Barack Obama’s health care fix was a ridiculous idea from the beginning: It forced Americans to buy a product that had to be drastically overpriced in order to make money and then posited that it was a tax so that the Supreme Court would let it slide.
While the Supreme Court may be willing to ignore reality, the companies that have to bear the brunt of Obama’s foolish policies can’t do that. Red ink is impossible to ignore, and insurers have seen too much of it over the past few years.
And if you think that Humana is going to be the last company to pull out of Obamacare, you’re just as divorced from reality as the liberals are. Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree.
(via: Conservative Tribune)
