Health Insurance Companies Resent Not Being Able to do "Business As Usual" and Pull Out of Market

FOXNews is running a story with the headline 9 Companies Exit Nebraska's Health Insurance Market.

Sounds pretty scary, doesn't it?

The article states that "some of them cite Obamacare as the reason for their departure," and furthermore, Fox says it's "likely [they] don't think it's worth it to make the changes necessary to comply with the federal health care law."

That nasty old Obamacare!! How dare they tell insurance companies how to do business? What right do they have? This is America - people have the right to buy cheap bare-bones plans, that don't offer an array of benefits and that deny people coverage just because they're sick or old.

I mean, that's the kind they've always sold, right?

And now, thanks to Obama, they can no longer sell them to the gullible desperate public.


Fox says so - right in their article. "Insurance companies selling individual plans can no longer sell cheaper, bare-bones plans, must offer an array of benefits and cannot deny people coverage because they're sick or old."

Apparently that was enough to convince Aetna, American Family Mutual Insurance, Humana, Independence American Insurance Company, Reserve National Insurance Company, Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York, Companion Life Insurance and United Security Life and Health Insurance to stop selling individual (and, in some cases, group) policies in Nebraska.

The state insurance commissioner says Obamacare is the major driving factor in the companies' pullout, largely because of the administrative and policy changes they'd have to make.

So, in other words, take away their cheap, bare-bones plans, force them to offer an array of benefits that include the things people actually use like covered well visits, immunizations, birth control, breast exams, prostate exams and pap smears and remove their ability to refuse insurance to anyone who's ever had the misfortune of being sick or getting old and what have they got left?

Not enough to pay their CEOs their accustomed salary, perhaps?

For example:



The CEO of Aetna Inc., Mark T. Bertolini, had a 2012 pay package that more than tripled — nearly quadrupled — his compensation the year before, according to documents filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bertolini was compensated a total of $36.36 million last year, not including $11.1 million in stock awards which vest later and are based on the company's performance.



Stock awards and other compensation given to Humana Inc.’s new president, Bruce D. Broussard, totaled $10.5 million in 2011 — more than the compensation for longtime CEO and company chairman Michael B. McCallister.