Insurers Could Get Multi-Millions in Obamacare Bailout -- By Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times, Yahoo News

The insurance industry may be next in line to receive a hefty government bailout. That’s what could happen if signups for Obamacare fall short of expectations triggering an obscure provision in the Affordable Care Act that makes up any serious losses. 

The potential price tag: millions of taxpayer dollars or more over a 3-year period.

So-called “risk corridors” were  included in the 2010 health law to compensate insurance companies for major coverage losses in the event that far more older and sick people signed up for health plans than younger, healthy people and drove up their costs after they had set the premiums.  If actual claims exceed projections by more than 3 percent under Obamacare, the government will compensate the industry for those losses.

The new federal and state-run insurance exchanges – plagued by hundreds of technical glitches and other operational problems – have reported signing up just 106,185 people nationwide through Nov. 2, amid signs that relatively few young adults are turning to the program for coverage. 

That problem could be compounded by President Obama’s call last week for insurance companies to reverse course and restore millions of individual health care plans that were cancelled because they don’t meet the new higher standards under Obamacare. Some health industry officials and state insurance commissioners fear Obama’s request could destabilize the already troubled new exchanges and further discourage younger people from enrolling.

 (Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content