ABC News is reporting about a study that shows that in 530 counties across America there is only one health insurance company that is selling policies on the government Obamacare exchange. That means that roughly one out of five counties have no competition at all. In another forty percent of the counties covered by the federal exchange have two companies that offer insurance on the exchanges. Overall, fully 58 percent of all counties get policies from either one or two companies only.
I did a fast check to see what is available now. In Fairfield County Connecticut where I live, there are three companies offering health insurance on the individual market for 2014. For someone sixty years old, there is a choice of sixteen insurance plans. I checked to see how many plans are available for 2013. I only looked at four companies which were selling plans here and found over 200 choices of private plans. Of course, there are additional companies that were also selling insurance this year.
We all know that competition reduces prices. Supposedly, the exchanges of Obamacare were going to increase competition and thereby reduce the cost of insurance. Of course, like all the other perverse effects of Obamacare, competition has actually been reduced in dramatic fashion. No doubt, the reduction of competition is one of the main reasons why the costs of the policies have soared so high.
It still amazes me just how poorly Obamacare is performing and just how misguided the so called "experts" were in their analysis of what the effect of the statute would be. Clearly, if these same experts were to design a new fire department for the District of Columbia, Washington would now be nothing more than a smoldering ruin.
I did a fast check to see what is available now. In Fairfield County Connecticut where I live, there are three companies offering health insurance on the individual market for 2014. For someone sixty years old, there is a choice of sixteen insurance plans. I checked to see how many plans are available for 2013. I only looked at four companies which were selling plans here and found over 200 choices of private plans. Of course, there are additional companies that were also selling insurance this year.
We all know that competition reduces prices. Supposedly, the exchanges of Obamacare were going to increase competition and thereby reduce the cost of insurance. Of course, like all the other perverse effects of Obamacare, competition has actually been reduced in dramatic fashion. No doubt, the reduction of competition is one of the main reasons why the costs of the policies have soared so high.
It still amazes me just how poorly Obamacare is performing and just how misguided the so called "experts" were in their analysis of what the effect of the statute would be. Clearly, if these same experts were to design a new fire department for the District of Columbia, Washington would now be nothing more than a smoldering ruin.
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