When the President Obama pushed through the Affordable Care Act, a variety of people on the right questioned the program’s ability to control costs. Simple economics dictated that limiting the marketplace and subsidizing care would increase consumption and raise prices. The political left dismissed these concerns, noting that the ACA had a system to provide care at reasonable prices. It appears that system is on the verge of collapse:
Federal officials have a secret list of 11 Obamacare health insurance co-ops they fear are on the verge of failure, but they refuse to disclose them to the public or to Congress, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has learned.
Just in the last three weeks, five of the original 24 Obamacare co-ops announced plans to close, bringing the total of failures to nine barely two years after their launch with $2 billion in start-up capital from the taxpayers under the Affordable Care Act.
All 24 received 15-year loans in varying amounts to offer health insurance to poor and low income customers and provide publicly funded competition to private, for-profit insurers. Among the co-ops to announce closings were those in Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Vermont, New York and Colorado.
Nearly half a million failing co-op customers will have to find new coverage in 2016. More than $900 million of the original $2 billion in loans has been lost.
By shielding these failures, the administration limits the ability of the public and professionals to offer alternatives and fixes. Beyond that, it showcases an enormous double standard. Private companies with similar market size and impact are forced to disclose all manner of information under Sarbanes Oxley and other regulatory schemes. As the piece notes, people are demanding answers:
Pipes said taxpayers are stockholders in the non-profit health insurance co-ops. “We are paying for it. We have a right to know. They don’t like to release things unless they’re forced to, particularly if it shows them in a bad light or their program to be in a bad light.”
Taxpayer groups also expressed anger over the government secrecy.
“There is no excuse why taxpayers should not know the names of the people and groups who misspent and wasted tax dollars on publicly financed health insurance co-ops,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
It’s this double standard that permeates everything the Obama Administration does. While they’re busy impugning the motives of private corporations, the liberals that buy into such programs conveniently ignore the failure of government to correct its most egregious, expensive mistakes, and the consequences it leaves for those who depend on it.
AAN Staff
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