There are a few comical foundations of Obamacare.
That we'll have cost savings by having "competition" in the exchanges!
There won't be any increased incentive for competition.
We can shop in exactly the same fashion now on any decent broker's website without facing Uncle Sam's senseless bureaucracy. The only real difference in a broker's website and the new Obamacare exchange is that'll we have less choice … i.e. the four "metal levels" of coverage.
Originally, setting up the exchange program was sold to us as being revenue neutral, and now cost estimates are as high as $1 trillion dollars!
And lack of competition is not the main driver of rate increases. The main driver is medical inflation from multiple sources and unhealthy lifestyles.
Premiums have increased more in the last couple years than they did for several years before Obamacare.
Carriers can pay for anything we want, but claims have increased, so premiums must increase.
No one seems to look at carrier profit margins for some reason. Any other similar sized corporation in any other industry has double or triple the margins, and some (oil companies) even get billions of dollars in subsidies.
