Insurance Cancellations Soar Above Obamacare Applications

25 Oct, 2013 by William Teach

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It seems to be a daily thing, finding out that some insurance company is sending out notices of cancellation due to provisions of the Affordable Care Act

(Daily Caller) Hundreds of thousands of Americans who purchase their own health insurance have received cancellation notices since August because the plans do not meet Obamacare’s requirements.

The number of cancellation notices greatly exceed the number of Obamacare enrollees.

Insurance carrier Florida Blue sent out 300,000 cancellation notices, or 80 percent of the entire state’s individual coverage policies, Kaiser Health News reports. California’s Kaiser Permanente canceled 160,000 plans – half of its insurance plans in the state – while Blue Shield of California sent 119,000 notices in mid-September alone.

Two major insurance carriers in Pennsylvania, Insurance Highmark in Pittsburgh and Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia plan to cancel 20 percent and 45 percent of their total plans, respectively.

Nearly 800,000 New Jersey residents’ health-care plans will not longer exist in 2014, forcing insurers to create new ones for individuals and small business owners that hew to the Obamacare’s new regulations, The New Jersey Star Ledger found in early October.

That’s just a portion of those who’ve seen their plans ended. There are cancellation notices going out all of the country. Multiple carriers in Colorado cancelled plans, catching Michelle Malkin in the crossfire.

More Americans have lost their individual health coverage in Florida and California than have gotten past the login screen on HealthCare.gov, according to The Washington Post, which reports that 476,000 applications have “been started,” but not completed. HealthCare.gov’s dysfunctional website has helped enrollment grind to almost a complete halt.

Of course, we do not know how many have actually obtained insurance through the Exchanges, both national and state run. The Chicago Tribune notices the same thing, and notes

That is far north of half a million lives dropped due to new ObamaCare regulations in just 3 states. That doesn’t even include recent reports in North Carolina of Blue Cross planning to cancel a sizable portion of their plans, or carriers doing the same in Illinois or Nebraska.

One has to wonder how many other carriers will soon be dropping the hammer on consumers. When all is said and done, 16 million Americans could lose their health insurance thanks to the Obamacare provisions. And that’s before we get to the time when businesses start dropping their own sponsored coverage prior to the employer mandate kicking in come 2015.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.