With Respect To Health Insurance Companies Now Going Forward......

[global1]

My thought was that the insurance companies during the primaries and the run up of the election and then the ultimate win by taking the presidency, the House and the Senate - essentially sandbagged ACA along with the Repugs to make it fail. I believe that the insurance companies saw an opportunity to perhaps boost their profits if they went along with the Repugs and helped ACA fail.

So I think what we seen happen around the country is that they started dropping out of ACA in markets and it others they started to raise premiums. In spite of that - American's still signed up for ACA and still feel that it is a great alternative for them.

Now that the Repugs have failed to 'repeal and replace' I'm wondering if these same healthcare insurance companies will not want to leave money on the table and will begin to get back into the same markets that they dropped out of.

If they stay out now - they don't have a chance to make any money. If they re-enter ACA markets with new offerings - they have an opportunity to make money again. They gambled. They lost. And now they have to be realistic and jump back in.

If they do - I don't think that ACA will implode and I think it will become stronger.

The insurance companies saw how badly the Repugs failed on this - and I don't think that they will want to give them a chance to do this again.

This is just a theory that I have. What do you think. Might I be on to something?

[WinkyDink]

1. I 100% agree. 100%. Big Insurance raised premiums to anger many people enough to vote Trump.

These companies were betting on EXACTLY your scenario of MORE MONEY UNDER Ryan and Trump.

Maybe now they will be more reasonable, knowing THEY are the real losers today (so are the 1%, but the 1% won't even feel their lost bonuses).

[mythology]

7. The ACA mandates insurance companies spend 80% on member care

If they had raised rates without there being a rise in costs, that money would have just been refunded back to members. If your premium went up, it's because underlying costs went up.

[WinkyDink]

8. Oh, okay. Snerk.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Well insurance companies loved the "individual mandate" part of the ACA. n/t

[DeminPennswoods]

3. We know AETNA pulled out due to a hissy fit

over their planned merger with Humana being scotched, not because of market conditions or anything.

The insurance companies were unhappy and dropping out because they missed in calculating their costs under the ACA formulas. The gov't reimbursed them, but not enough to cover their losses. I could see the insurance companies lobbying hard for increased reimbursements and they should find friendly ears in the congressional Rs, Price and Trump. I think if they got more of their initial losses covered, they'd return.

[subterranean]

6. The Republicans are the ones who cut the reimbursements.

Little Marco Rubio inserted an amendment into a budget reconciliation bill that drastically limited the "risk corridors" that were designed to protect insurers against the risk of adverse selection in the first few years of the ACA. I don't think these Republicans will do anything to help the ACA succeed; instead, they will do everything they can to make it fail.

[DeminPennswoods]

10. The insurers knew that, though

They still mis-calculated their costs.

[superpatriotman]

4. Someone needs to get them in line

If you want to do business in this country you'll do it right.

[world wide wally]

5. IF the GOP really wanted to help people, they would regulate the costs

That is something that could pass

[WinkyDink]

9. Hahahahahaha! "If," indeed!