Remember when Jared Polis and Joe Biden promised to protect and reduce our health care costs?
Both are bragging that mission was accomplished, and yet our drug prices have not been reduced, insurance costs keep rising, and now this:
Humana to withdraw from the employer health insurance market in Colorado
And this:
Colorado insurance rates will be more expensive than Polis administration promised
Humana has about 183,000 members in Colorado, and will cease coverage in June of 2024.
A spokesman for Gov. Polis told Colorado Politics that Humana’s departure is no big deal because it didn’t affect a lot of people, and claims the company is leaving because they can’t compete with other providers.
“Humana simply was not able to compete in Colorado’s highly competitive market,” the spokesman said. “We have a competitive health insurance market, this company has a small market share and we will monitor this development as saving people money on and expanding access to health care is a top priority for the governor.”
As for Polis’s top priority of saving people money, that campaign talking point was blown to smithereens just hours after the news of Humana’s departure.
From another Colorado Politics report:
Colorado’s insurance premiums will increase by double digits in the small group pool and by a substantial amount in the individual market next year, rate changes the state released on Tuesday show, leading the trade association for health insurers to argue that the Polis administration “chose politics over math.”
Coloradans face a 10.4% hike in the small group market, which insures companies of between two and 100 employees, and 7.4% in the individual market, which serves people who must pay for their own health insurance, in 2023.
Despite the spike in insurance premiums, the Polis administration insisted that Coloradans will see savings – to the tune of $326 million – and credited its actions for “driving substantial savings.” But those savings are primarily through reinsurance and are not included in the information consumers will see when they shop for health insurance when open enrollment starts next Tuesday, Nov. 1.
Democrats have been promising to save health care and make it more affordable since the days of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for socialized medicine.
And yet, even with the passage of the heralded Obamacare 12 years ago, one can’t help but notice that our insurance costs keep rising, while the actual benefits are dramatically reduced every year.
If the real market were truly allowed to work, instead of having to deal with government interference every election year to allegedly make it better by making it worse, America could return to the days when family health insurance didn’t cost more than a house mortgage.