From Hope to (Chump) Change

I find the conclusion -- that "the stars continue to align for repealing ObamaCare" -- a bit rosy, but it's certainly clear from a recent article in Investor's Business Daily that the insurance industry is reeling from the law:

Fitch Ratings looked at nearly three dozen BCBS [Blue Cross Blue Shield] companies and found that 23 saw a decline in earnings that totaled $1.9 billion in the first nine months of last year, while 16 had net losses.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan lost $622 million from January through September last year. Blue Cross plans in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana lost $442 billion. And those in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia lost $266 million.

...

Given their size, these insurers should have had the broadest and most stable insurance pools in ObamaCare. What they found instead was that the young and healthy are avoiding ObamaCare's overpriced insurance. If the Blues are struggling, how likely is it that the smaller insurers can succeed? [links dropped]

The article also notes that these companies provide a large majority of the insurance in some states.

My pessimism about repeal isn't so much about getting a GOP president elected (a dubious enough prospect since Trump doesn't really count), but about the Party of Appeasement possessing the courage to do the right thing.

-- CAV