[quote=SK in CV]
Unlikely to happen. Under the ACA, insurance companies have no incentive to get costs under control, except to remain competitive with other insurance companies. There are no limits as to what they can charge, so long as they use the statutory percentage for health care.
There are no new sudden cost increases under the ACA. There is a continuation of cost increases that dates back decades. And that includes both costs of medical care and premium costs. There were safeguards in place under the original law, to allow small insurance co-ops to succeed during the first few years, in case of catastrophic losses. Those safeguards were removed, guaranteeing failure of some of these coops. But the large insurance companies are doing just fine in most states. In states they’re not doing fine, they’ll figure it out. Their business is medical insurance. They’re unlikely to abandon controlled markets for their products.[/quote]
Of course there are costs increases under the ACA. Having to insure people with pre-existing conditions and having to create plans that insure things beyond what their previous plans insured both increased costs. There were a variety of people that were forced to change their health insurance plan because it did not meet the requirements specified in the law. For many of those people health insurance became more expensive rather than less expensive. I’m sure BG can write a novel about it.
In addition they cannot just raise premiums to whatever they want. They have to get approval from regulatory bodies. Even if they could raise the prices to whatever they’d like eventually it becomes too expensive and healthy people stop signing up. Why is United Health considering leaving the exchanges if everything is fine and they’ll just figure it out. I think they are figuring it out. It might be more profitable to stick to corporate health plans and ditch offering plans on the exchanges.
