The Death Spiral Tightens an Obamacare Schadenfreude

NYT confirms: ObamaCare enrollees to experience the traditional annual treatment yet again. Gray Lady Raises the White Flag on Obamacare

Six years after a Democratic majority rammed the most complex piece of domestic legislation in decades through a party line vote, using a legislative technique that ensured the final bill would be a mess that nobody actually advocated, the law, shockingly, isn’t working very well. Enrollment is only half of what proponents expected, premiums are going up by double-digits, healthy people are shunning what they see as an over-priced and underperforming program, the ‘cooperatives’ that Democratic wonks gushed over are going belly-up, and insurance companies are fleeing the market in droves.

And even more amazingly, the New York Times has sorted through the chaos and come up with the conclusion that the Obamacare mess is serious, costly, damaging—and very, very hard to fix.

It has been a hard couple of weeks for Obamacare. The law’s online marketplaces — where people were supposed to be able to easily shop for health insurance — have been suffering from high-profile defections and double-digit premium increases.Critics of Obamacare have pointed to the recent problems as proof the market is not working, while even the law’s staunchest defenders are arguing that the marketplaces need some fixes.

The signature domestic accomplishment of the Obama administration is, the Gray Lady appears to be conceding, a dysfunctional mess. . .

Or as Ace notes: "Nice of them to rouse themselves momentarily."

Why ObamaCare failed. The "Death Spiral" of course. Too bad someone didn't warn them.
Obamacare rate hikes rattle consumers, could threaten enrollment. What? You mean people buy less of something that's more expensive? Somebody should take note of that! Obamacare Premiums Set to Rise, Even for Savvy Shoppers. Whodda thunk that market rules apply to health insurance? Not the New York Times, apparently. Four states with massive Obamacare hikes. Loony: Minnesota ObamaCare rates to skyrocket by 36% to 67%. Iowa Insurance Commissioner on Obamacare: ‘It’s a real troubling market right now’

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart appeared on CNBC yesterday to explain his decision to approve rate hikes as high as 42% in his state. Echoing comments made last week by Tennessee’s Insurance Commissioner, Gerhart said the Obamacare market was “troubling” as the result of “adverse selection.”

“This really is a math problem,” Gerhart said. “The carriers have had sustainable and large losses so our position is we have to look at the rates for adequacy for the carrier and affordability for the consumer as well,” he said. “It was a really tough decision and I hate to increase rates by 42.6 percent but it really had to happen for our market to be sustainable,” he added.

 Aetna has revealed ObamaCare’s many broken promises

As it turns out, Obamacare does not prevent insurance companies from denying you coverage, dropping your coverage, or watering down your coverage. It does not prevent insurers from limiting your coverage. It does not prevent discrimination against the sick. All of these things happened in Pinal County—and not in spite of Obamacare, but because of it. Obamacare made covering everybody in the exchange prohibitively expensive, so insurers stopped covering anybody.

Instapundit shouts: THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: ObamaCare coverage options disappearing across country, report finds. Surprise: Obamacare Creates More ER Patients, Reduces ER Specialists

Well, damnitall, if only someone had gotten off their behinds and warned us that this could happen!

(Science Daily) The average monthly emergency department visit increased by 5.7 percent in Illinois after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), although the population remained essentially flat. In Massachusetts, while visits to emergency departments climbed steadily between 2005 and 2014, availability of on-call specialists (surgeons, psychiatrists and other specialists) declined “significantly.” The results of two state-specific studies were published online last Thursday in Annals of Emergency Medicine (“Increased Emergency Department Use in Illinois After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act” and “Decline in Consultant Availability in Massachusetts Emergency Departments: 2005 to 2014”). . .

We were told that Ocare would reduce ER visits. Well, this is not the first study to show an increase in ER visits, along with a reduction in ER personnel.

But look on the bright side: Even Left-Leaning Econ Writers Are Impoverished by Obamacare.

"We're Hiring Economics Writers," says the headline of a post at the web site FiveThirtyEight.

Good for them. Then they write:

This is a part-time staff position (up to 29 hours per week) and does not offer benefits.

Any idea why they chose 29 hours? Answer: Obamacare. . . 

If only someone had warned them. The almost always sensible Megan McArdle explains what went wrong with Obamacare:  Modesty Could Have Averted the Anguish of Obamacare

Six and a half years into Obamacare, it seems worth asking, “Was this inevitable?” And, if so, “Was there a better alternative?”

I think the answer to the first question is “Yes.” And I think the answer to the second is, “Yes, there is something Washington could have done, and it probably would have been better than what it did.”. . .

and Why Obamacare Can't Be What Its Supporters Want. The answer come down to Our caveman politics.

Lady Gaga, if you can't tell

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic the Administration announces new Obamacare rules as media admits the program is in trouble. Of course, this was the goal all along: Surprise: Former Senior Obama Advisor Calls For Public Option and Brace Yourself, Bridget: 'Single-Payer' Health Care Is On Its Way. Stuart Varney Demands On-Air Apology From ObamaCare Architect Zeke Emanuel. Good luck with that, Stuart.

Obamacare is failing. Why isn't Donald Trump talking about it? He is but not in detail. Repeal is a start.

FLASHBACK: HOLLYWOOD’S USEFUL IDIOTS PIMP OBAMACARE