Don’t believe the hype: Health insurers think Obamacare is going to be fine

[DonViejo]

Last edited Thu Jan 16, 2014, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

BY SARAH KLIFF
January 15 at 2:26 pm

Welcome to Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff’s regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system — and being changed by it. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for the latest edition or sign up here to receive it straight from your inbox. Read previous columns here.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Obamacare's troubled rollout hasn't scared insurers out of the marketplace. Instead, speaking to thousands of health-care investors gathered in San Francisco, plan executives describe the Affordable Care Act as, at worst, a fixable mess and, at best, a major growth opportunity.

The executives' commentary was a reminder that the health-care industry doesn't set its watch by the election cycles which dominate Washington. They expected Obamacare to be a bit of a mess in 2014 -- but they're in it for the long haul.

"We believe that over time, a lot of these bumps will work themselves out," Joe Swedish, president of Wellpoint, the country’s second-largest health plan, said in an interview with The Washington Post."We have always expected it to have a sort of lumpiness to it, the rollout. It's certainly become more lumpy than one would have predicted [but] over time, this will work out."

“Our view is we’re still in the early innings,” Cigna chief executive David Cordani told a standing-room only crowd of investors at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. “The first couple of years will be choppy, and we’re learning whether it can find its legs.”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/15/dont-believe-the-hype-health-insurers-think-obamacare-is-going-to-be-fine/

[Xyzse]

1. There is no doubt in my mind about that.

I tend to think that matters reach a certain kind of equilibrium given enough time.