08-01-2017, 09:55 PM
(08-01-2017, 06:59 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: So then, why are providers drying up in some markets? We're not talking about the bulk of working Americans that have employer sponsored health coverage, or the Seniors on Medicare, or even the indigents on Medicade, but that small percentage that must purchase their individual policies on the exchanges.
There are many reasons. The main reason would be money. If the companies aren't making a profit they will leave. Same applies to any state insurance market. Since these are new markets they made an educated guess what to charge. If they made a bad guess prices went up. If they made a good guess prices may have went down. You had a business so you probably know better than I that prices vary based upon lots of factors.
Another reason is market instability. The Republicans have been trying to repeal Obamacare every year. Plus Trump has repeatedly threatened to stop paying the government subsidies. They government subsidies are basically what your employer pays towards your health insurance. If the government stops paying what they agreed to pay, the insurance companies are up a creek without a paddle. Would you keep doing tile for a customer who repeatedly threatened not to pay? I doubt it. You didn't stay in the tile business when the housing market crashed, why would the insurance companies stay in the Obamacare exchanges when the Republicans are trying to crash the markets by repealing the markets?
There is more to it than that, but you get the idea.
Also, the majority of patients I've seen with Medicaid aren't indigent, but poor.
