ObamaCare is on death watch.

 

By Post Editorial Board

December 10, 2015

 

On Wednesday, Cigna CEO David Cordani said the giant insurer won’t commit to offering policies on the ObamaCare exchanges beyond next year. This, just two weeks after a similar announcement from the country’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth.

The problem: Exchange policies (written by Democratic politicians and bureaucrats) turn out to be a good deal only if you’re sick. Healthy folks have been opting out — so not enough are paying premiums to make selling the policies profitable.

One gimmick might keep insurers in the game: The law’s “risk corridor” provision allowed Washington to tax profitable exchange plans to prop up unprofitable ones.

But even in Year One, there weren’t enough profits to cover the losses — so Team Obama transferred money from elsewhere.

This subsidy was entirely distinct from the law’s support for lower-income folks: It was a bailout for the companies. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) put a stop to that last year, passing an amendment that prevents these back-door bailouts.

Without the extra taxpayer dollars, the administration can only deliver about 13 percent of the bailout cash needed this year. So it can’t save the money-bleeding nonprofit “co-ops” the law set up either. More than half these nonprofits have failed already.

Firms like Cigna will have to either quit the exchanges — or raise premiums. But higher prices will push more customers — especially healthier ones — to the exits.

Which will force more price hikes . . . leading to the total collapse that insiders term a “death spiral.”