The Obamacare death spiral has arrived
Obamacare premiums, after jumping 25% in each of the last two years in a row, are set to have absolutely massive jumps in premiums next year.
Three states have announced preliminary 2019 premium-rate requests for Obamacare individual-market policies, and the numbers don’t look good.In Virginia, the first state out of the gate, insurers requested hikes as high as 64.3 percent. Across all insurers, and weighted for current enrollment, the average increase is likely to be “only” 13.4 percent, according to calculations from health care analyst Charles Gaba.
In Vermont, one of its marketplace insurers requested an average 7.5 percent increase, and the other a 10.9 percent average annual rate increase.
In Maryland, insurers have also proposed double-digit increases. There, price hikes average 30 percent, with one plan penciling in an astonishing 91.4 percent jump.
The Obamacare co-ops are largely history, and now the idea of unsubsidized Obamacare is fading as a possibility.
This has led to Dems and Repubs blaming each other.
“Thus far, Democrats have been on the defensive about premium increases,” said Cynthia Cox, a health insurance expert with the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Now they’re starting to play offense, and from our polling we’ve seen that a lot of the public now feels that the Trump administration and Congress are responsible for any problems with the [Affordable Care Act] going forward, so it may be that the politics of premium increases has changed.”
Two things are true: 1) Republicans are partly responsible, and 2) Republicans have no idea what to replace Obamacare with.
So what are the Democrats' idea? How about Obamacare + a public option and more subsidies? Or Public Option on Steroids?
Or Medicare For More?
If these all sound like incremental bandaids, that's because they are.
This is a party that firmly believes that “radical centrism” is a thing.
One thing is for certain: health care will become a bigger and bigger issue.

Comments
I figured it would fail all along. Saying so
got me booted off TOP. But Iknew it would fail when The Empty Suit killed the employer mandate. And that wasn’t brilliance on my part. Or ESP. It was just plain old common sense. You can’t dive into a pit of vipers and not expect to get bit.
TES was just pandering to Big Pharma and the healthcare insurance industries. He’s making big bucks now for all his betrayals.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Kind of sucks "affordable"
(which it never was) out of Affordable Care Act.
Now we'll have to call it the Unaffordable Care Act.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@Wink or they could be honest
"I got mine, Fuck yours" - The motto of the new America...
I'm gonna try to con my Finnish friends into adopting me...
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Thanks for another opportunity to post
THE CHART

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Looks like we're going
to level off just
under 80 while costs continue to rise.
Most everyone else in the $4K - $6K range, while the U.S. is headed toward $10K, or doubling most everyone else. But, hey... Freedom!
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
What a coincidence!
US life expectancy stopped increasing and began flatlining under the sterling leadership of Ronald Reagan. Even from the grave that man just keeps on taking.
1980 was a pivotal year.
It marks the widespread introduction of Neoliberalism in the UK and US. I've got a whole series of charts that document that turning point in 1980. Elections do have consequences.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.