Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment

Critics of the Affordable Care Act were quick to blame the law itself for the problems that UnitedHealth Group disclosed Thursday, including a projected $900 million in losses from the exchanges this year and next.

Another publicly traded insurer, Centene Corp., also backed its outlook and said its marketplace business is performing as expected.

UnitedHealth said it suspended marketing of its individual exchange plans and is cutting or eliminating commissions for brokers who sell the coverage in many markets.

Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem and Medicaid coverage provider Molina Healthcare both said they are making money off their exchange business, and Anthem joined Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer, in reaffirming its 2015 earnings forecast.

Aetna said Friday it still expects 2015 operating earnings of $7.45 to $7.55 per share.

The company’s late start allowed competitors Aetna (NYSE:AET) and Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) to get a valuable head start in signing up members, but UnitedHealth Group’s expansion into additional states this year did allow it to sign up more than a half a million members through Obamacare.

Though readers could infer that the co-ops are involved with Obamacare, Murphy didn’t identify them as entities specifically created in the legislation to try to “prove” that non-profit, government-financed entities could show the big, ugly profiteering insurance companies how to run a business efficiently and effectively.

UnitedHealth’s announcement about the ACA exchanges was surprising because, as recently as a month ago, the company was touting future growth prospects for that business.

‘We see no data pointing to improvement, ‘ he said.

Hospitals, which have to treat emergency patients whether or not they have health insurance, have benefited from the exchanges which increased the number of Americans covered by health insurance. Insurers are still struggling to attract enough healthy patients, and the analyst said it’s too easy for customers to manipulate the system by doing things like signing up for coverage, using health care, and then stopping premium payments.

“That’s certainly something that other carriers so complained about”, Hempstead points out, though she said it’s unclear if UnitedHealth was in a few way uniquely affected by that trend relative to other insurance carriers.

Under the Affordable Care Act, those who do not have health insurance could face a fine of $695 or 2.5 percent of their income.

Peter Costa, an analyst at Wells Fargo & Co., said Thursday that he expects Anthem and Aetna to lose money on the exchanges next year, potentially leading them to reconsider their postures. Still, the company had expected a profit in 2015 and blamed its lower profit estimates on the costs of medical claims from the exchanges and low enrollments and raised questions about who will be left to compete for business on the exchanges and who will survive.

A new report from CMS revealed consumers have collected over $2.4 billion premium rebates since 2011. “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there are now programs in place to give consumers maximum value for their premium dollar”, said Mr. Counihan. The move has affected more than 200,000 people here and forced them to scramble for new coverage. According to Helmsley, the people who bought insurance from them through the exchange, but outside of the open enrollment period, are averaging about 20 percent more expensive than the rest of the pool. That’s a small slice of the insurer’s total enrollment, which exceeds 46 million, and Hemsley emphasized Thursday that the company’s overall business remains strong.