The stakes are enormous for Obamacare in the fall’s open enrollment season, after defections from major insurers.
Major insurers are fleeing Obamacare marketplaces due to mounting financial losses from a sicker-than-expected population. To stop the bleeding, the administration is hinting at starting an ad campaign to boost enrollment and changing regulations to bail out insurers before the Affordable Care Act’s fourth open enrollment starts in November.
Insurer participation is vital to Obamacare as more insurers can lead to greater competition and keep premiums down for consumers. A recent study by the consulting firm Avalere Health found that the withdrawals from insurers could hinder competition in a third of marketplaces.
Without adequate competition or insurer participation, the marketplaces could collapse and consumers could lose coverage.
Officials have hinted recently that they will seek to make improvements to the risk adjustment program, which redistributes funds from plans with lower-risk enrollees to plans with sicker enrollees.
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Changes to risk adjustment and other regulations appear to be a likely route as the administration wouldn’t have to go through Congress to do it, Carpenter said. The Republican-controlled Congress has made repealing Obamacare a top policy goal.
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This fall may be make or break for Obamacare https://t.co/qnOFWVY0Eo
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 22, 2016
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