GM eliminating the Ponitac line killed more jobs than the ACA ever will.
At the same time United says it’s leaving the exchanges, United is ALSO piloting a subsidiary called Harken Health in GA and Il. It’s a new model for insurance they are pushing in the exchanges, and so far it’s been popular. It’s pretty cool, actually. A great network and no-additional-cost primary care.
Edit: This is another article I was looking to post and finally found it. It’s a pretty cold look at ACA and Healthcare, from a business perspective, but I found it really helpful in a “big-picture” kind of way.
Oh, OUCH. 
ACA stumbles, people may lose health care and die, Republicans Rejoice.
And these guys are Christian because…?
As long as the profit motive drives health care, people will die. Vote as if your life depends on it, for it may.
UnitedHealth, you can take your greedy behind and preserve it for anything else, other than providing health insurance to The People of these United States.
Perhaps if your executives accepted reduction in pay, then you could survive the goodwill of ACA.
more proof to Republicans that Obama’s plan to save the auto industry actually failed because it killed jobs…
it’s all in the spin…
The GOP’s deepest hope seems to be that modern America fails, and they’re working hard to make it happen. It’s borderline treasonous.
The ACA is still wet behind the ears. Takes time for maturity to sink in.
Jobs and health care.
Consumers are flocking to Amazon, shuttering local retailers left and right.
According to the conservative movement, that proves free enterprise is a slow-rolling catastrophe.
Fiero!
OK - hypothetically speaking, let’s say the ACA was a “slow-rolling catastrophe” what’s the alternative?
Buying across state lines?
Buying some cheap, no coverage junk plan just to convince yourself that you actually have some coverage?
Die?
America isn’t going to gut the ACA; we’re going to improve on what works in it and make it stronger and more accessible.
This. UHC has a million subsidiaries on the exchange. I exaggerate, but not really.
Their problem is that they weren’t as prepared because they gambled on the idea that the whole thing would be determined unconstitutional. I saw this a lot. They didn’t do any of the necessary foundation work required and then when they realized it was going to go, they tried to hurry it all up without proper planning. Many of the red states were caught this way too. They didn’t put in place procedures to do the necessary compliance and review work thinking it would all go away. We dealt with this in several Midwest states. The certification every year to get plans on the exchange with the proper benefits is still something of a nightmare per state that didn’t just let the federal government take over the whole process.
EDIT: I know it’s common to think that insurance companies raise rates and cancel plans willy nilly, but there is a massive amount of work that goes into all of that. It takes at least six months to get ACA plans certified. It’s quite a process. You can’t just run and hurry to catch up. If you miss the deadlines, you’re out of the exchanges for the year. I can bet UHC has been in a mad rush to catch up and hasn’t really been able to create a sustainable internal process after sitting out the first year. They did no planning.
Well the free market alternative would actually be to repeal EMTALA, making it legal once again for hospitals to refuse service to uninsured people, even if they’re in the middle of a heart attack. That would be a such a terrible idea that maybe we could bait The Rump into saying it like his 6-hour position on abortion penalties.
Isn’t companies failing to compete part of how the “free market” is supposed to work?
UnitedHC did a shitty job on the Exchanges.
Other HC companies jumped in early, and (shocker!) got a better market share, positioning them favorably to ride out the bumps. Will others still screw up? Yep. Their managers can be (and usually are) as dumb as the next guy. Thinking CEOs know what they’re doing is just blind, crazy optimism.
So UnitedHC did this to themselves. I have no clue as to which idiot in their C-Suite made the decision to “wait-and-see” (here’s betting good money it was a political and ideological “these things will fail” call), but whomever it was is probably going to be in deep doo-doo, if he/she hasn’t already decided to “retire early to spend more time with my family”.
Exactly. Although UHC lives in a bubble. They probably still love this person and will promote him/her. There is a common misconception that there is this huge conglomerate of health insurers that lobby. There really isn’t. There’s UHC and Anthem. The little guys either get on board, or sit out. The problem is they are so large, they not only make strategically bad decisions, they are wholly resistant to any change and have to be dragged kicking and screaming down the road by force. These two companies are going to have to get with the times. It’s a problem, but I hope their stumbles create openings for smaller insurers to finally gain some foothold.
Profit. 