One of the big reasons I’m so pessimistic about the new health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act is the principle behind them. The idea is that everyone will be well- informed dedicated shoppers who will know how to select the best plan to fit their needs, which will reduce cost for everyone. [...]

Next year the federal government should spend over $340 on each person enrolled in the federally-run exchanges just to operate these marketplaces. My estimates are based on the new Health and Human Services (HHS) budget and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports. It puts per enrollee federal exchange spending at $341 for fiscal year 2014.* To [...]

Competition among private insurance companies in America doesn’t result in lower premiums. The Medicare Advantage ended up costing more money than traditional Medicare. The federal employee heath insurance exchange, like many state employee exchanges, have not produce significantly lower premiums or slow growth rates. And as the New York Time Economix blog points out, having [...]

There is a zombie myth that if you make people buy health insurance on exchanges the magic of the marketplace will bring down costs. The problem is that this idea has never worked in reality. It didn’t work for Medicare Advantage’s private health insurance exchange, it didn’t work in the federal employee insurance exchange, and [...]

During the debate over Obamacare Ezra Klein was a huge proponent of  health insurance exchanges using only private insurance companies. He called the exchanges the number one cost control idea in the new law. From Klein March 22, 2010 in his list of “five most promising cost controls in the health-care bill”: (1) Create a [...]

The large for-profit private insurance company Anthem Blue Cross has found a clever new way to screw over its consumers even if they have been diligent about paying their premiums on time over the years. I encourage everyone to read the entirety of this article in the LA Times: [Andrea] Kreuzhage has been making automatic [...]

With less than three years until most aspects of the new health care law start, only 10 states have passed legislation creating new health insurance exchanges according to a report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (PDF). The Affordable Care Act requires states to set up these exchanges; and if a state fails [...]

The recently appointed Connecticut state health care exchange board contains three former high ranking private insurance executives. From the CT Mirror: The members of the new panel include three former insurance executives, the head of a coalition of health plans for unionized workers, the head of a green energy business, and a health policy scholar [...]

It seems President Obama as expected grabbed hold of the Joe Lieberman’s trial balloon and is now also pushing to raise the Medicare retirement age to 67. From Huffington Post: According to five separate sources with knowledge of negotiations — including both Republicans and Democrats — the president offered an increase in the eligibility age [...]

The Affordable Care Act will eventually start requiring health insurance policies to be explained in a simpler to understand manner. While this a good thing there is still the huge problem that simpler is not the same thing as “simple.” Insurance policies in this country are just inherently complex, making it almost impossible for regular people who will be using the new exchanges to actually know what is the best policy for them.