US experts warn that the healthcare Website’s problems could lead to a destabilized insurance market.
American economists and the policy wonks behind the Affordable Care Act say the technical problems of the healthcare Website could lead to a destabilized insurance market.
The economists warn that if the glitches are not fixed millions of younger Americans may give up the enrolments and that could lead to rising prices.
“If there are significantly more of the older and higher-cost people purchasing coverage than are expected, that’s going to have a significant impact on premiums for the following year,” the New York Times quoted Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, as saying. “It could ultimately destabilize the market.”
Younger people, who tend to have very low anticipated medical costs, are supposed to help pay for the medical costs of older or sicker enrollees, the Times said. Without them, the newspaper said, so-called risk pools in many US states might become too risky, forcing insurers to raise premiums. Those higher premiums could dissuade more of the young and healthy from signing up, forcing insurers to increase prices again.
Economists call the process “adverse selection” and warn that in its worst iteration it could lead to a “death spiral” of falling enrollment and climbing prices.
On Monday, Chicago Tribune reported that a data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Obama’s healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, went down on Sunday.
The problem stopped online enrollment for all 50 states, affecting the government’s already problem-plagued online marketplace Healthcare.gov and similar sites operated by 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The Obama administration earlier vowed to fix the Website’s problems. But some specialists working on the project said the site might need weeks of repair.
The White House said Wednesday that it would give those who buy health insurance through new online marketplaces an extra six weeks, until March 31, to obtain coverage before they incur a penalty.
The administration said the extension was not related to the current technical problems of the Website.
ARA/ARA
Source: Press TV