Krugman: Good news on Obamacare - "rate shock" with premiums.

[pampango]

It Takes A Government (To Make A Market)

Lots of reporting on the new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of what we know so far (pdf) about premiums under Obamacare. It definitely looks as if there will be a mild “rate shock” — in the right direction. KFF:

While premiums will vary significantly across the country, they are generally lower than expected.

What’s going on here? Partly it’s a vindication of the idea that you can make health insurance broadly affordable if you ban discrimination based on preexiting conditions while inducing healthy individuals to enter the risk pool through a combination of penalties and subsidies. But there’s an additional factor, that even supporters of the Affordable Care Act mostly missed: the extent to which, for the first time, the Act is creating a truly functioning market in nongroup insurance.

Until now there has been sort of a market — but one that, as Kenneth Arrow pointed out half a century ago, is riddled with problems. It was very hard for individuals to figure out what they were buying — what would be covered, and would the policies let them down? Price and quality comparisons were near-impossible. Under these conditions the magic of the marketplace couldn’t work — there really wasn’t a proper market. And insurers competed with each other mainly by trying to avoid covering people who really needed insurance, and finding excuses to drop coverage when people got sick.

With the ACA, however, insurers operate under clear ground rules, with clearly defined grades of plan and discrimination banned. The result, suddenly, is that we have real market competition.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/it-takes-a-government-to-make-a-market/?_r=0

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

1. Another hopeful piece of news.....

.....from the literature.

[lamp_shade]

2. Thanks. As with all positive news and opinions, I posted this to my facebook.

[uponit7771]

3. Obamacare will bring on the Four Horsemen then the end of the world so ... PK doesn't know anything

.../sarcasm <----cause that's needed around here these days

[grahamhgreen]

4. As much as I hate mandatory crapsurance, that's cool! How much for the plans?

[JDPriestly]

5. Great news!

Bulk buying. It's what chain grocery stores and department stores do. Why shouldn't we consumers do it in health care? The more of us buy, the greater the efficiency, the cheaper the costs. Makes sense.

As for those who think they don't need health care insurance? Yes, you do. Everybody needs health care insurance. Only fools protest against having to buy it. You could fall. You could crash. You could become very ill. That goes for everyone. Emergency room services are not enough for anyone.