When news recently broke of Aetna Health Insurance Company pulling out of most Obamacare exchanges, that move put the perceived ills of Obamacare, which everyone already knew of anyway, on full public display.
Millions more of Americans have insurance, a sizable amount that would never have qualified previously, and that is a commendable thing, (based on a U.S Department of Health and Human Service, they estimate 20 million people gained health insurance coverage between the passage of the law in 2010 and early 2016—an historic reduction in the uninsured) but we have to be honest, we all know folks that have bitterly complained about premium increases with their insurance under Obamacare, which is officially the Affordable Care Act. Such increase stories are becoming common, and something has to give. For example in Colorado, Athhem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is seeking a 26.8 percent premium increase for individual plans in 2017.
And now the plot thickens. Here is how we discussed it on TV.
It turns out, the Aetna CEO had threatened in advance, the Obamacare pullout, if the Feds opposed Aetna’s merger with Humana, and the Feds did NOT approve that merger. So in other words, Aetna said to the federal government, do what’s best for Aetna or we will throw a monkey-wretch in Obamacare.
Obamacare doesn’t need life support, but there are serious issues on the table for the health plan, and not just the political partisan attacks by republicans in Congress. There are problems with Obama care, that must be corrected, but then that raises an even larger problem. To solve the problems, that will take congress working together in a bi-partisan way.
Good Luck with that in this political climate, but seriously good luck with Obamacare. (For the sake of all Americans, and those citizens that remain uninsured)