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Obama doesn’t see Obamacare problem

It is inconceivable that those in President Barack Obama’s administration are as ignorant of basic principles of economics as a new scheme seems to suggest.

Several major companies have pulled out of the Obamacare health insurance system. They simply cannot continue losing money by the hundreds of millions of dollars each year, the firms’ executives explain.

That leaves millions of Americans adrift, with choices for replacement health insurance either very limited or non-existent. If they drop out of the program entirely, it becomes even less sustainable.

So the Obama administration has launched a campaign to convince those whose companies have stopped offering Obamacare policies to switch to the few firms still in the business.

If successful, that would result in a domino-effect problem for companies still struggling to stay in Obamacare. Here’s why: Insurance companies drop out of the program because their customers are costing them more than they pay in government-controlled premiums. Some insurance executives point out that many in the young, healthy crowd – who in the past have paid more in premiums than they collected in benefits – avoid signing up for Obamacare at all, until they become sick and need coverage. That leaves firms with older, sicker customers who are a money-losing proposition.

Transferring that mix of people to new companies may make it impossible for them to remain in Obamacare. That could collapse the entire system – leaving the way open for liberals to demand the even worse “single-payer” system, under which government would be the sole provider of health insurance. That would be a catastrophe for Americans.

So, is it possible the White House simply doesn’t understand all that?

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