Younger, healthier Americans needed to make Obamacare financially viable are not signing up in sufficient numbers. Most enrollees have been people over 50, many with pre-existing medical conditions.
The skew toward the older crowd raises concerns that there will not be enough payments from young people to offset the cost of providing coverage for the older ailing population, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The early numbers, while statistically too small to draw conclusions, raise concerns about the practicality of the insurance marketplaces.
"We need a broad range of people to make this work, and we're not seeing that right now," Heather Thiltgen of Medical Mutual, one of Ohio largest insurers told the Journal. "We're seeing the population skewing older."
The target enrollee is someone around 40 years if age.
If the drift continues, a more expensive cohort of customers, older and less healthy, would drive up costs for everyone. The federal government had committed to reimburse insurers if they underestimated costs.
This may still not be enough to keep the system afloat should the overall customer pool be appreciably older than forecast.
Widespread problems with the healthcare.gov system serving the 36 states that are not operating their own marketplaces have dissuaded younger, healthier applicants from enrolling. Those who cannot chance being without coverage have persevered.
Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday, Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner said the administration is seeking to remedy the problems with youth enrollment as soon as the website is fully operational.
“Based on our analysis we will have it fully functioning by the end of November,” Tavenner told the committee.
Via: Newsmax
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