The news broke Monday that ObamaCare has again missed enrollment forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office, resulting in grossly limited options and high prices for consumers. “Enrollment is simply nowhere near what the congressional budget office thought it would be,” reported Fox News correspondent Kevin Corke, “Now what that means is higher costs for those of you who that take part, and for the insurers, it means they're losing money.” Even with that dire fact the “Big Three” news networks chose to cover for the Obama administration.
Corke did admit that the initial estimates by the CBO were “pretty high,” and noted that the actual rate of enrollment into the program is only at half of what the projections predicted. “New analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows a third of ObamaCare exchange customers will only have a single insurer offering for the upcoming year,” Corke continued, “And that means many insurers have simply stopped offering plans all together.”
And according to Corke the losses the insurance companies are experiencing are absolutely huge, some would even say “yuge”:
And we're not talking tens of millions of dollars, we’re talking to the tune of billions with a "B." Billions of dollars…
Let me just show some of the big losses. I think this will probably surprise you, as well. United Health Group announced that they lost a billion dollars for 2015 and 2016. Health Care Service Corp, well north of 2 billion in the first two years. Highmark, $600 million in 2015 alone. And Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, projected losses of $400 million in just the two years.
Ignoring the failings of ObamaCare as it rots from the inside has become a trend for the liberal network news outlets. In mid-August, ABC and NBC skipped over the story of insurer Aetna pulling out of two thirds of the ObamaCare exchanges they were involved in. And back in mid-July MRC’s Mike Ciandella found that for the year, up to that point, broadcast evening news spend a scant 23 seconds on ObamaCare’s slow breakdown. CBS made up the totality of that 23 seconds for the year.
Transcript below:
FNC
Special Report
August 29, 2016
6:14:37 PM EasternBRET BAIER: New indications tonight about the kind of growing challenges facing millions of Americans on ObamaCare. The president's legacy healthcare law. Correspondent Kevin Corke is live tonight at the White House with the latest disturbing news for the president's health care overhaul and the people who depend on it. Good evening, Kevin.
KEVIN CORKE: Good evening to you Bret. And I can pass along just a bit of breaking news we have just learned that the president tomorrow will be meeting with the secretary of homeland security -- of HHS, Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell. It's expected they will talk a great deal about some potential changes to ObamaCare in 2018. Let me explain very quickly why. Enrollment is simply nowhere near what the congressional budget office thought it would be.
Initial estimates were pretty high. They're actually enrolling at about half that number. Now what that means is higher costs for those of you who that take part, and for the insurers, it means they're losing money, Bret. And we're not talking tens of millions of dollars, we’re talking to the tune of billions with a "B." Billions of dollars.
New analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows a third of ObamaCare exchange customers will only have a single insurer offering for the upcoming year. And that means many insurers have simply stopped offering plans all together.
Let me just show some of the big losses. I think this will probably surprise you, as well. United Health Group announced that they lost a billion dollars for 2015 and 2016. Health Care Service Corp, well north of 2 billion in the first two years. Highmark, $600 million in 2015 alone. And Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, projected losses of $400 million in just the two years. But as you can well imagine Bret the White House is pushing back. They say Obamacare is still working, especially for the tens of millions of newly insured Americans who depend on it.
[Clip of Josh Earnest]
JOSH EARNEST: The administration is focused on making sure that we realize the potential around the marketplaces to expand choice and opportunity for people all across the country. And what is clear is that the vast majority of people all across the country will have access to a plan that costs $75 a month or less.
CORKE: Alright, so that sounds good at least in theory right? But here's the problem for consumers. As more commercial insurers, Bret, begin to bail on Obamacare they're being replaced increasingly by HMOs—the health maintenance organizations—, that means fewer choices typically. And on occasion, that means higher costs for the American people. And that's not what the president sold the American people when he was pitching this idea a few years ago.
And just to drill down very quickly: In Tennessee, to give you a quick example, there is a commissioner there, Julie McPeak, who is suggesting that the exchange in her state is quote, "Very near collapse because of the increasing rates that are being asked for and granted." Some of these insurance companies: Cigna up 46 percent, Humana up 44, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bret, up a whopping 62 percent. Those are massive rate increases that get passed on to the consumer. Again, tomorrow the president will talk to the HHS secretary. Of course, I'll bring you all the details right here, back to you.
