>>>Yeah you're missing a huge piece of the puzzle there -- step back to 2015 and see what Rubio along with other Republicans did in gutting the risk corridors and the result of that.
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>Yes, but aren't those the subsidies being discussed? Can you tell me of another market where the taxpayer has to inject massive funds to ensure private services are always profitable? Apart from banking when similarly driven to a crisis by greedies, I mean.
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>Not sure why you blame Rubio, either (even though he does like to claim credit) because I'm not convinced those payments ever were approved by Congress in the first place. In fact, when Obama asked Congress to fund the risk corridors, Congress refused. When Congress learned that HHS was using other operational budgets to reimburse insurers, Congress passed legislation to prevent this. Twice. When Congressional intent was again subverted by paying insurers out of a third (Judgment) Fund, Congress again showed its disapproval in the legislation you describe, slicing $2.5B out of the available pot. As Sammie notes, Obama then signed the bill rather than exercising his veto. Nor did he object to the defunding in his signing statement where he did mention other clauses he didn't like. A cynic might observe that Obama saw other government funding as more important than risk corridors, especially with HRC scheduled to sweep into power and save the day.
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>Whatever the cause, failed individual mandate and no surety of profit means smaller insurers have gone broke or been consumed by larger firms who simply abandon states with too many poor sick people or deliver huge premium increases to cover their PAYG business. The huge premiums then incentivize more mandate exemptions which breaks the model even more... and welcome to the death spiral. Meanwhile the elephant in the room is that despite paying twice as much per capita as some other nations for quality healthcare, the US leaves millions without cover (meaning the per capita cost is actually far higher) and still needs 30% or more premium increases so insurers can make a profit. You are being ripped off. Where's your money going, Victor?

To give tax breaks to the rich. Or at least that's where more if it'll be going in a few more hours :)