Blue Cross Blue Shield decides to raise rates:
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas has about 603,000 individual policyholders and, unlike other insurers in the state, offers coverage in every county. In a recent filing with federal regulators, the company said it is seeking increases averaging from 57.3 percent to 59.4 percent across its individual market plans.
In a statement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas said its request is based on strong financial principles, science and data. “It’s also important to understand the magnitude of the losses … experienced in the individual retail market over the past two years,” the statement said. The company says it lost $592 million last year and $416 million in 2014.
This is the death spiral. With each increase in rates, there are fewer and fewer healthy people willing to buy policies, and pay the sick people’s medical bills with their premiums. In a system predicated on the many healthy paying the medical bills of the sick, the healthy people pulling out is bad. All you can bet on is that it will get worse.
Meanwhile, California is going to let illegals buy coverage through the exchange:
Already at the forefront of enacting immigrant-friendly policies, California could become the first state permitting immigrants to use the insurance exchanges created by the new federal healthcare law…
The measure now heads to the Senate for a final vote, before advancing to Gov. Jerry Brown.
Of course the healthy ones won’t bother, but any sick ones with millions per year in medical expenses will jump at the opportunity to pay a small fee for unlimited coverage of all their costs.
The most amazing aspect of amygdala degeneration, is that it so closely mimics purposeful malice and evil. I would not have believed it, were I not able to see it with my own eyes.
