ACA Stops Competition

The whole idea of the Affordable Care Act was to make insurance companies compete for the new customers. Now after two enrollments it’s clear the insurance companies are not lowering the cost but instead increasing the premium. The only way premium are being lower is by the government subsidy offered to eligible individuals and families. The working middle class individuals earning fewer than 100,000 a year salary but makes over 50,000 is back to where they were before ACA existed.

To make matters worse, the insurance offered are the high deductible plans leaving the burden all on the consumers. Since all expenses are the responsibility of the consumer up to $6800 deductible, the insurance carriers are paying very little out in claims yet premiums continue to increase and carriers are reporting losses.

This year’s enrollment has become another fiasco where agents no longer offer constructive professional advice but are on the rampage of offering zero premium payment and bronze plans as the easy sale which only benefits the carriers and themselves. The race is on, to write quantity in less than two minutes applications for significant profit. Silver plans are a thing of the past, and zero premium payment is the new fad from coast to coast.

Now the marketplace enters the act in offering a limited number of plans to consumers favoring the carriers. Is there a quota system Americans were not made privy too? Is it possible that carriers are favored by spreading enrollment to all participating companies to even out the numbers of participating enrollees? Therefore, consumers must select the only plans offered regardless if it’s higher than the lowest price plan only to meet an insurance quota.

I hope this is not the case. However, in enrolling a case the only 22 plans the marketplace offered was from one carrier. How can this be? The sad part was the customer was not offered other carriers which would cost 50% less with identical benefits. So are we forcing price downward or supporting the carriers. Either way we are not forcing any competition.

George Soria

Mr. Health Benefits