The Obamacare Death Spiral Proceeds as Predicted

Who knows whether or not Republicans will get their repeal-and-replace of Affordable Care Act through Congress. From the commentary I’ve seen (mainly on “Morning Joe”), the odds seem remote that the Senate will approve whatever the House of Representatives sends their way. In the meantime, we are left with the Obama state exchanges.

The picture just turned more ominous here in Virginia. Innovation Health, which health insurer Aetna created through a joint venture with Inova in 2012, is dropping out of the Virginia market. In addition, United Health has declined to file with Virginia’s insurance department to offer any policies next year, reports CNN Money.

That leaves six insurers remaining, but 27 counties will have only one choice in 2018.

The death spiral is corkscrewing away. Less competition means higher prices. Higher prices drive healthier people out of the market. A higher percentage of sick people runs up costs. Insurers raise rates or drop out. Less competition means higher prices….

There’s not much we can do here in Virginia to affect the outcome of Congressional debate. But there is plenty we can do to make health care more affordable, improve outcomes, and to bring price transparency to the health care system. If we want to make health care coverage affordable for Virginians, lawmakers should focus on ways to improve productivity and innovation. I know I sound like a broken record… broken record… broken record… So I’ll leave it at that.