The Columbia Journalism Review: Why We Need Stronger Coverage Of Covered California

The California Press Gets a Critique It Has Long Deserved

Covered California, the Obamacare state-run health insurance exchange, has long been the subject of occasional posts on this blog––none of them flattering.

The constant spin in the face of facts that comes out of Covered California and the way the press, particularly in California, has often just reprinted that spin hasn't been appreciated here.

I am happy to report––and admittedly relieved––that it isn't just me that thinks the reporting has been less than objective.

But would you believe that conclusion would have come from the esteemed Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) in a story titled, "Why We Need Stronger Coverage of Covered California"? The journal is part of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

In past months I have pointed out that:

• Covered California enrollment "increased by only one percentage point this year, despite a big investment in outreach."
• Total enrollment has stalled out at 40% of potential enrollment.
• Yelp gives Covered California a single-star rating based upon almost universally highly critical consumer reviews.

And then there was former CBS News Emmy winning investigative journalist, Sharyl Attkisson, with her two part expose, "Incompetence, Mismanagement Plague California's Obamacare Insurance Exchange" and "Insider's Detail Culture of Secrecy at California's Obamacare Exchange" on The Daily Signal, that filled in the details behind all of the high expense, poor consumer service, and now dismal enrollment results for the more than $1 billion taxpayers spent in California on that Obamacare exchange.

All of this time hardly a critical peep came from the California press and it sure looked to me like they were all happier just to reprint Covered California's upbeat press releases.

In her Friday story, the Columbia Journalism Review's Trudy Lieberman said the following:

In recent months, Covered California has cited each of these measures ["good" enrollment news] to tout its success. And though outside analysts have raised some notes of caution, press coverage has largely followed the lead set by the exchange. The result is coverage that has too often been reactive, short on enterprise, and with missed opportunities to ask some necessary questions. Covered California may ultimately have a success story to tell––but it will need to face some sharper skepticism before we can be sure.

And also from the CJR story:

It can be exhausting to sort out all of the different metrics, and the state's healthcare reporters have had plenty of other stories. But going forward, the exchange warrants closer scrutiny than, for the most part, it got this year. And while reporters should definitely be attentive to outside evaluations both critical and positive...there is a role for journalists to play, too, in getting out there and talking to people...

With all due respect to Lieberman, I would have said it more succinctly to the press: Just do your job.

The Eye Popping 2016 Obamacare Rate Increases Are Out

The Big Rate Increases Are Coming a Year Early

The Obama administration has posted the 2016 rate increases in excess of 10% that the Obamacare health plans are requesting.

There are a lot of them.

All of the federally run states have been posted and some for the state exchanges as well. Both California and New York do not have their rates on this site yet.

Some will quickly argue that many of these rate increases are subject to regulatory approval and can be rolled back. That's right. But this year the health plans have hard claim data to show the regulators and a 35% rate increase is hardly going to be rolled back to 5%.

Big rate increases like this are driven by a lot of claims experience––a lot of really lousy claim experience.

You will also notice that this list most often includes the big market share players, such as the Blues plans, in each of these states. These are the players with the best data.

That these big rate increases are coming a year before the "3Rs" reinsurance kegiatan is to end, that was supposed to subsidize the health plan's high claims experience, is not good news.

You can access the administration's website and look at all of them by state here.

To quickly see all of the 10%+ rate increases in a particular state just click on the state and enter a date range of 01/01/2016 to 01/01/2016. Leave the company field blank.

If you leave the dates blank, you can see the carriers' rate submission history since 2013. It's interesting to see what a particular carrier increased rates at the time of Obamacare's original launch and what they have layered on to costs since.

If you click on the company name on the left side, you will see a brief description of their justification for the rates.

For example, Blue Cross of Texas commented that it covered 730,833 individuals in 2014 with premium of $2.1 billion and claims totaling $2.5 billion––for a medical loss ratio of 119%. The plan further commented that, after the "3Rs" reinsurance adjustments, they lost 17% to 20% of premium in 2014––that would be more than $400 million. And, they are only asking for a 20% rate increase.