If the ACA is a giveaway to insurance companies, why are they contributing to the negative press?

[fried eggs]

It seems like many insurance companies are going out of there way to link the ACA with every price hike or cancellation. Do they want new customers or not?

Also, if states have information on how many insurance policies were cancelled, can't the media go back to previous years and compare? Where was the concern for people getting cancellations and price hikes before 2009?

[LaydeeBug]

1. because now they have to spend on CARE, and not profit.

single payer would have eliminated them altogether

[HooptieWagon]

2. They're using the opportunity to create confusion to allow price-gouging...

Would be my guess. Disaster Capitalism.

[fried eggs]

4. Interesting theory! You think it's an attempt to scare the invincibles

away so that prices go up?

I wonder if it could also be that the heads of the insurance companies hate Obama so much that they are cutting off their nose to spite their face? Maybe their hatred blinds them to the fact that they're just making it easier for the whole thing to be overturned and all the potential customers to disappear?

[HooptieWagon]

5. I don't think they hate Obama.

After all, Big Insurance IS Wall St (Obama's "base&quot . They are merely creating a state of confusion, whereupon they can steal the gold without anyone looking. And if they get caught doing somwthing illegal, what's gonna happen? A mere slap on the wrist is all.

A similar situation is happening with flood insurance, as the federal subsidies expire. Flood insurance is set to increase by as much as 8 to 10- fold. Modest houses here in St Pete might see premiums of 10-30 thousand dollars for a 250K dollar house (which is pretty average for here, for a non-waterfront home). There is an area of town here, Shore Acres, that is an old derdge and fill devwlopment...many canals, and low-lying ground. It gets flooded regularly, about 4 major times in past 35 years. This happens when a major rain event combines with unusually high tides, and the streets flood. Per a recent article in the Tampa Bay Times, its one of the most flood-prone areas of the entire US. Theres all kinds of arguements going on, whether the govt should subsidize insurance...but completely unmentioned is the fact that that area has collected $55 million in insurance claims, while making premiums totalling $280 million during the same time span. The insueance Cos are making a killing, even without federal subsidies. They just using the chaos and confusion to try and make more money.

[datasuspect]

6. "heads of the insurance companies hate Obama so much . . . "

i lauged and cried when i read that.

shit, they are hoisting magnums of the finest champagne in his honor.

[jsr]

3. They're crying all the way to the banksters who are also crying because of the negative press

[seveneyes]

7. Standard subterfuge

They know they're in the driver seat now and need the facade to hide their complicity in the ripoff. If they can help get the GOP on their side, then they can charge even more. Brown bagging and corruption pays better than honesty.

[pampango]

8. 4-D chess. Obama is not the only one who plays.

When our friends or enemies don't do what we expect, it is logical to contend that they are using a complicated strategy rather than considering whether we misjudged them or the issue at hand.

[alc]

9. they need to "win" the PR battle

In theory they get lots more customers this year. But corporations want to increase profit year-after-year ("increase" is the key for growth, not stead profit). Any problems people have with them doing this need to be seen as the ACA's fault, not theirs. They want to keep jacking up premiums while we keep blaming the government.

The medical loss ratio (mlr) says they have to spend 80-85% of premiums on medical costs. That means the only way to increase profit on ACA policies every year (after first year of increased customers) is to increase medical costs and they have plenty of ways to do that. This will lead to battles with regulators that they will play out in the media. They need to get the upper hand now. When regulators tell them to decrease costs (no premium increase) they will start screaming "death panel". If they win the battle now, the media and customers are more likely to side with them wanting to "cover everything" rather than regulators who want to decrease premiums.

If regulators do "win" the MLR battle, the insurers will be able to increase profit by offering supplemental policies to cover everything the "death panels" (aka regulators) have caused them to cut. They will also want to blame the ACA for that, so they need their customers to have a negative view of the ACA and not them.