ObamaCare calls for each and every state to set up a “health exchange,” a highly regulated, government-run marketplace where individuals can shop for health insurance, by 2014. Each state is required to either show progress on building an exchange by 2013 or make way for the federal government to build and manage one directly.

In theory, they will expose health insurance customers to greater competition while protecting them through regulation. Insurers participating in the exchanges, for example, will face strict limits on how they can price their premiums according to individual risk factors. In practice, they will likely prove difficult to design and implement, and may ultimately undermine the country’s quality of care.


ObamaCare’s defenders will likely argue that such practices merely prove the need to get tough with insurers. But in ObamaCare’s exchanges, which force insurers to take all comers and charge similar prices regardless of health history, pressure to avoid the sick by any means will be fierce. Squeezed by federally-required regulations, insurers will certainly compete—but only to avoid the sick.

This is Obama's idea of increasing competition, a market place that is run by the government.

STILL MORE OBAMACARE FALLOUT:

Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.

The decision by Wellesley-based Harvard Pilgrim, the state’s second-largest health insurer, was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements and a new requirement that insurers offering the kind of product sold by Harvard Pilgrim — a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan — form a contracted network of doctors who agree to participate for a negotiated amount of money.

Kathleen Sebelius isn't going to like this:

“We became concerned by the long-term viability of Medicare Advantage programs in general,’’ said Lynn Bowman, vice president of customer service at Harvard Pilgrim’s office in Quincy. “We know that cuts in Medicare are being used to fund national health care reform. And we also had concerns about our ability to build a network of health care providers that would meet the needs of our seniors.’’

Translation: ObamaCare is killing Medicare Advantage and now doctors no longer want to be in business with the federal government. Good luck finding a doctor.

Brace yourself for more.

STILL MORE OBAMACARE FALLOUT:

OBAMACARE BROKEN PROMISES: McDonald's May Drop Health Plan.

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.