Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Threat Of Monopolies Looms As Insurers Withdraw From ACA Markets, Analysis Shows
The Wall Street Journal: Health Insurers’ Pullback Threatens To Create Monopolies
Nearly a third of the nation’s counties look likely to have just a single insurer offering health plans on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges next year, according to a new analysis, an industry pullback that adds to the challenges facing the law. The new study, by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, suggests there could be just one option for coverage in 31% of counties in 2017, and there might be only two in another 31%. That would give exchange customers in large swaths of the U.S. far less choice than they had this year, when 7% of counties had one insurer and 29% had two. (Wilde Mathews and Armour, 8/28)
Reuters: More U.S. Counties To See Obamacare Marketplace Monopoly: Analysis
Nearly a third of U.S. counties will likely be served by only one insurer that participates in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace in 2017, according to an analysis published Sunday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.The 31 percent of U.S. counties that will have just a single option of insurers within the ACA's exchanges would represent an increase from 7 percent this year, the nonpartisan group found. (Hunnicutt, 8/27)
Meanwhile, enrollment numbers are significantly lower than predicted, and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander rails against the health law —
The Washington Post: Health-Care Exchange Sign-Ups Fall Far Short Of Forecasts
Enrollment in the insurance exchanges for President Obama’s signature health-care law is at less than half the initial forecast, pushing several major insurance companies to stop offering health plans in certain markets because of significant financial losses. As a result, the administration’s promise of a menu of health-plan choices has been replaced by a grim, though preliminary, forecast: Next year, more than 1 in 4 counties are at risk of having a single insurer on its exchange, said Cynthia Cox, who studies health reform for the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Johnson, 8/27)
The Hill: Tenn. Senator Blasts 'Intolerable Increase' In ObamaCare Prices
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Saturday said his state offers living proof ObamaCare is on its last legs.“When Tennesseans woke up on Wednesday morning and opened up our state’s largest newspaper, the front page headline read, ‘Very near collapse,’” he said in the GOP’s weekly address. (Hensch, 8/27)
