Friday, July 01, 2011

Aetna bails, Beshear wails

A frantic letter from Governor Steve Beshear's Insurance Commissioner to the Obama Administration today paints a clearer picture of how ObamaCare stands to hurt Kentucky.

In the letter, Commissioner Sharon Clark states that Aetna, the nation's third-largest health insurer is pulling out of Kentucky's individual and small group health insurance markets immediately. ObamaCare is the reason for their departure, which makes Kentucky's health insurance market even less stable and less competitive since Congress passed the new law.

Clark wrote: "Kentucky's individual marketplace remains fragile and in recovery after a previous health reform efforts (sic) in the 1990s. Given Aetna's intentions, the Commonwealth of Kentucky remains concerned that insurers exiting the market may cause an unsustainable influx of individuals into Kentucky Access, Kentucky's high risk pool. With the current budgetary environment, the effect of a large increase in membership into Kentucky Access that may occur with an additional carrier exiting the market could be extremely detrimental to the pool."

In other words, Kentucky is still trying to get over our flirtation two decades ago with HillaryCare. This is our own Democratic Governor starting to realize that Obama's health fiasco will hurt Kentucky. Please keep spreading the word about bad policies like ObamaCare. When even elected Democrats are getting the message, it's clear the Tea Party movement is having a major impact.