On Monday, CBS This Morning was the only network morning show to cover the latest problem for ObamaCare and the program’s sagging enrollment numbers caused by increased premiums.
Co-host Charlie Rose noted that there are “potential strains with the Affordable Care Act open enrollment for 2016...The administration needs more people to sign up but premiums are likely to increase.” ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today ignored the most recent ObamaCare problem on their Monday morning broadcasts.
In the network’s brief 24-second coverage on ObamaCare, Rose highlighted how “[s]ome popular low-end plans could jump 7.5% on the federal marketplace. Last year insurers lost $2.5 billion or about $163 per enrollee.” What the CBS anchor left out in the news brief was the extent to which insurance companies have taken a sizable hit since ObamaCare’s implementation.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Under the ACA, insurers have seen an influx of new membership in individual plans and in Medicaid plans they administer for the government, expanding the industry’s total U.S. revenue to $743 billion in 2014, the year the law’s biggest changes took effect, from $641 billion the year before...
But much of that growth has been unprofitable. Health insurers lost a total of $2.5 billion, or on average $163 per consumer enrolled, in the individual market in 2014, McKinsey found. A number are also expecting to lose money on their marketplace business for 2015.
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The health law remade the individual market, forcing insurers to sell plans to all consumers and banning them from charging rates based on health conditions. Insurers struggled to predict their costs, and many didn’t set rates high enough to cover the care of those they enrolled.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
November 2, 2015
CHARLIE ROSE: The Wall Street Journal reports on potential strains with the Affordable Care Act open enrollment for 2016 is beginning now. The administration needs more people to sign up but premiums are likely to increase. Some popular low-end plans could jump 7.5% on the federal marketplace. Last year insurers lost $2.5 billion or about $163 per enrollee.
