A report authored by House Republicans asserts that the 12 state-run Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges that remain are poised to collapse.
Four states — Oregon, Hawaii, New Mexico and Nevada — have already given up running their own exchanges in the wake of financial difficulties, the report notes. It predicts others will follow.
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"While each state's circumstances are unique, there appear to be common factors in each state's experience of failing to sustain its (state-based exchange) — lower-than-expected enrollment, higher-than-anticipated costs, and more complicated-than-anticipated technology challenges," write the authors.
The report also takes aim at the Obama administration, accusing it of falling short of its duty to oversee the state-administered exchanges. The feds are continuing to provide financial assistance to the state exchanges, which were supposed to be financially independent after the first year of operation.
"While no single entity can bare total blame for past failure, it is imperative that the responsible federal agency, (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), be held accountable to ensure the protection of taxpayer dollars," said the report.
The report also pointed out a provision of the law that requires the state exchanges to find instances of waste and make them public. So far, however, only one state exchange has done so.
The state exchanges are not the only target of ACA skepticism. Republicans and conservatives have been loudly proclaiming over the past year that the entire system, including in the 38 states whose exchange is operated by the federal government, is bound to collapse. They point to insurers that have opted to exit many state markets after failing to turn a profit, including UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana.
Many of the insurance plans that are still available have dramatically hiked premiums, leading to concerns that a portion of existing ACA customers will ditch their plans, further undermining the insurance pool
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