A new report by Edmund Haislmaier, a senior research fellow for the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, shows ACA has in fact limited consumers’ health insurance options by driving numerous insurers out of the Obamacare marketplace. According to Haislmaier, there are now only 287 “exchange-participating insurers,” down from 307 in 2015 and significantly less than the 395 insurers Haislmaier says were in operation in the 50 states and Washington, DC in 2013, only one year prior to the opening of the ACA health insurance marketplace.
Haislmaier also says 22 states and Washington, DC, representing 45 percent of all states, now have fewer health insurance providers offering plans than they did just one year ago. Only 10 states have managed to increase the number of insurers in their health insurance marketplaces.
Among the 45 exchange insurer departures, 31 were “voluntary exits,” and 21 of those resulted from insurers pulling completely out of all ACA exchanges.
The primary reason insurers are leaving Obamacare exchanges is cost. ACA provisions—notably the individual mandate, the requirement insurers must cover pre-existing conditions, and coverage requirements—are leading to higher enrollment rates for more expensive, traditionally uninsured Americans without increasing the pool of younger, healthier health insurance consumers, many of whom are finding Obamacare too expensive.
https://townhall.com/columnists/justinhaskins/
2016/04/20/draft-n2151481
