As I remember, Harry Nillsson composed and Three Dog Night used to sing a great song that went like this:
“….one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know.”
It was one of those 45s that I probably still have in a box in the closet.
One is indeed the loneliest number when it comes to love but “zero” is the worst number when it comes to health care choices.
According to a New York Times report, zero will soon be reality in many parts of the country:
Many counties already have just one insurer offering health plans in the Obamacare marketplaces, and some of those solo insurers are showing signs that they are eyeing the exits.
Humana announced this year that they’d be leaving the markets altogether next year. That means there are parts of Tennessee that will have no insurance options unless another insurer decides to enter.
And Anthem, which operates in 14 states, is getting nervous, an industry analyst told Bloomberg News this week. Its departure would be a much bigger problem. According to an analysis of government data by Katherine Hempstead at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Anthem is currently the only insurance carrier in nearly 300 counties, serving about a quarter of a million people.
Wonder what all of those people with “zero choices” think of ObamaCare imploding? It’s very real to them, isn’t it?
“Zero choices” makes a mockery of one of the objectives of ObamaCare, or insurance for all. Perhaps we should change its name to the Unaffordable and not always Available Health Care Act.
The lack of choices also puts the failed ObamaCare vote last month in a new perspective. The consensus was that the GOP blew a chance and maybe they did. However, Obama Care’s problems will make change even more possible now that reality, not the GOP, is killing the law.