In case you missed the news, and it would have been easy to this week, we found out that insurance companies in the Obamacare markets had their most profitable quarter yet.
Insurers in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces earned an average of nearly $300 per member in the first quarter of 2017, more than double what they earned in a similar period in the marketplaces’ previous three years, according to new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
That figure puts insurers on track to make a profit in the marketplaces after years of losses, according to Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the Kaiser Family Foundation who worked on the analysis.
Total profits in 2017 will probably be lower than the first-quarter numbers suggest. First-quarter earnings are typically higher than subsequent quarters, since many people are still paying off their deductibles. Additionally, the gross earnings measure does not include administrative costs, which further eat away at profit margins. Still, the bountiful first quarter suggests the marketplaces are becoming a more profitable environment for the private companies selling insurance plans on the public exchanges.
Analysts have been saying for a while that the premium increases we saw last year were corrective, that they were “necessary as a one-time market correction to adjust for a sicker-than-expected” pool that initially enrolled, as the Kaiser report says. But the pools have stabilized in most areas.
Outside of political interference and out-and-out sabotage by Republicans, the outlook for Obamacare would be pretty good in most places. It does need some fixes, which are pretty doable. In fact, the Trump administration shockingly just finalized approval for a fix in Alaska that will save everyone money and get more people insured. It’s a fix that would work in most of the markets that are struggling now. Obamacare doesn’t have to be scrapped by any means, no matter what Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell are trying to sell.
Daily Kos readers have made over 30,000 constituent calls to Senate Republicans in the last month opposing Trumpcare. If you live in a state with a Senate Republican, you can call, too! Call your Senator at (202) 224-3121, tell them NO WAY to taking health insurance away from millions. Then, tell us how it went.