Scott Gottlieb at Forbes writes:
Last night, California released enrollment and demographic data for the health plans being offered in its state Obamacare exchange. It shows that the enrollment, so far, is heavily skewed to older (and presumably sicker) people aged 45-64. [...]
The problem, of course, is adverse selection. If only older, and by inference sicker individuals sign up for Obamacare, it will force the program’s costs – and in turn premiums – to rise. This will further discourage the younger, healthier members that the administration need’s to enroll into Obamacare to make the scheme viable.
The data released by Covered California (the California exchange) shows that, so far, 34% of total enrollment is comprised of people aged 55-64, the highest mix among age brackets. Another 22% of enrollees were aged 45-54. Therefore, 56% of California’s total exchange enrollment in October was people aged 45-64.
Yet California’s total population of residents that are aged 45-64 is only 25%. This means that a dramatically skewed percentage of older individuals (relative to the state’s total eligible pool) are the ones – so far — signing up for Obamacare.
"This means that a dramatically skewed percentage of older individuals (relative to the state’s total eligible pool) are the ones – so far — signing up for Obamacare."
ReplyDeleteOf course. If you are a healthy young person, you would have to be an idiot to pay for over priced sickness insurance.
Obamacare is just another wealth transfer program from healthy youth to the oldsters. See social security, college tuition, student loans etc. Consider that the teenage-30 year population has the highest unemployment rates in the country, and this result is a fait accompli.
"This means that a dramatically skewed percentage of older individuals (relative to the state’s total eligible pool) are the ones – so far — signing up for Obamacare."
ReplyDeleteEditorial Note: The above sentence should read "dramatically screwed". Our apologies.