Big insurer eyes exit from Obamacare exchanges. UnitedHealth Group is losing money, which is bad news for Obamacare.

2015-11-19T14:38:27-05:00

Warning! Copied and pasted content. I couldn't help myself. )-:

WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest health insurance company is scaling back on marketing its products on the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges and is considering pulling its offerings after the current sign-up period ends, UnitedHealth Group announced Thursday.

The company currently sells health plans in 24 states and covers more than half a million of the approximately 9 million consumers who get their health insurance from the exchanges, or about 5 percent of the market. UnitedHealth is losing money on those customers, prompting the company to warn investors Thursday that its exchange business, while a small part of its portfolio, would negatively impact earnings this year.

The Affordable Care Act has successfully reduced the share of Americans without health insurance, which has declined from 14.4 percent in 2013 to 9 percent through the first half of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Response by SGT Jerrold Pesz made Nov 19 at 2015 3:15 PM

2015-11-19T15:15:13-05:00

Of course companies are losing money. Forcing companies to "insure" people with pre-existing conditions is like forcing insurance companies to insure cars that are already wrecked or a house that is already on fire. The only people interested in signing up are the ones who are already sick and can't afford to pay for care. I don't think that the liberals wanted it to succeed. The plan is to institute a single payer system after Obamacare goes down the drain. This allows them to claim that they tried to use the a free market approach but it failed so the only viable choice is socialism.

Response by CSM David Heidke made Nov 19 at 2015 3:30 PM

2015-11-19T15:30:19-05:00

I wouldn't be surprised if in the 2,500 pages of ObamaCare it would make UnitedHealth an non conforming plan and not allow them to sell insurance.

Response by PO2 Robert Cuminale made Nov 19 at 2015 10:52 PM

2015-11-19T22:52:45-05:00

I am not surprised. As noted elsewhere, with so many receiving subsidies to purchase policies and having expenses nowhere near what what is being paid it had to fail.
That crooked outfit that was behind this mess, AARP was working behind the scenes during the legislating and formed a partnership with United in hopes of making $1 Billion in the deal. It has worked hand in hand with the Democrats ever since the Gray Panther movement.