We all know it's bad. We pay hundreds a month to insurance companies because it's a law that we have to, and our employers pay even more. The health care industry is massively profitable. There's simply nothing we can do about it, or many of the issues plaguing this country. Before anyone says so, the illusion that we can change it by voting is not helpful. We can all elect a representative who will say they are going to change it, and they don't have to do a damn thing we want them to. Our system of government is broken, not just our health care system.
With the explicit goal of causing the individual marketplaces to implode. In the meantime it's increased the cost to taxpayers of subsidizing marketplace plans!
That doesn't really excuse the political cowardice of undermining the system while leaving most of it in place.
I guess we are pretty screwed though, there's no willingness to prop up the buy side of the market and no willingness to make regulatory changes that would negatively impact incumbents on the sell side.
(the fair, "market based" approach to decreasing medical costs in the US is to dramatically increase the number of doctors and mid-level providers).
> That report instead finds that the Obamacare market has continued "stabilizing," and that insurers are "regaining profitability" despite continued political uncertainty over the health-care law.
For a bit of anecdotal data, my premiums went up 2% last year, after 17% the previous year. I also got a $500 refund as they'd exceeded the 20% non-medical costs cap.
That was the talking point, and may have been true in a couple of places (especially those states that refused to expand Medicaid or only did the minimum to comply with the law), but I'm aware of no evidence that was true overall.
