A chart published by Axios shows the number of states that have lost Obamacare insurers between 2016 and 2017. The number is not good for defenders of the former president’s signature legislation:
As the above chart indicates, 25 states lost Obamacare insurers from 2016 to 2017. Only two states gained insurers. The remaining 12 states that have Obamacare exchanges saw no change in insurers. The state that saw the highest number of insurance losses was Texas, followed by Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, in descending order.
Needless to say, 25 out of 39 states bleeding insurers in a year’s time is not exactly ideal for Obamacare’s proponents. Advocates may argue that most of the states that lost insurers are red states that didn’t fully embrace Obamacare. However, that ignores the fact that such states went from enjoying minimal regulation to being hit with staggering regulations as a direct result of Obamacare. Naturally, those states would face the biggest insurer losses.
The uncomfortable truth for Obamacare proponents is that the law is currently in a death spiral; there are simply not enough young, healthy enrollees to offset the costs of sicker enrollees that insurers are forced to cover under the pre-existing conditions mandate. Consequently, insurers are losing money in the exchanges and are bailing, leaving some states with only one insurer altogether.