The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized the failure of Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, to deliver its promise in providing health care. The President promised to replace the health care exchange with the stricter and more feasible system for insurance industry. The health care system has been the long issues in the United States.
President Trump administration announced Wednesday Feb. 15 to replace the current health care exchange, Reuters reported. The health care exchange that was introduced in 2010 has been criticized by insurance companies for failure to protecting the health insurance industry to a downward spiral.
Since the bill was passed by the congress on March 21, 2010, the health care exchange system received many support and opposition as well. The supportive groups reported the number of people with health insurance has increased with the system. On the other hand, the industry and lawmakers saw the inefficiency of the health care exchange program that caused a loss of business for insurance companies joining the program.
As a result, many insurance companies decided to withdraw from the Obamacare because of the loss they have to endure. Humana, as reported by CNBC, has announced to exit in 11 states that sell the Obamacare.
Following the lost of money after participating in Obamacare, insurers tried to consolidate by merging their business. Two separate merger plans were announced in July 2015. The first one was Aetna and Humana in a $34 billion value, followed by the $48 billion merger Cigna and Anthem.
However, the federal judges ruled to block the two mergers, citing the mergers will eliminate the competition in the health insurance industry and reduce the innovation in the product offerings. The judge ruled against the the merger of Aetna-Humana on Jan. 23, followed by the ruling on Feb. 8 to forbid the Anthem-Cigna merger.
President Trump's administration tried to overcome this side effect of Obamacare by preparing a stricter and more feasible system for health insurance industry. One of the harsh criticism on Obamacare was given by Aetna CEO and chairman Mark Bertolini in an interview with FOX Business below:
