When America elected* Barack Obama, far too many did not realize that his chief advisers were named Cloward and Piven.
Moody’s Investor Service has changed its outlook for the U.S. health care insurance sector from stable to negative, citing Obamacare’s rollout and the uncertainty it brings.
The private credit rating agency said potential fallout from the Affordable Care Act’s implementation — including changes to the individual market and the impact of the law’s “employer
mandate” on commercial group plans in January 2015 — presents the greatest challenge to health insurers’ credit profile. Lower reimbursement rates among Medicare Advantage plans also are creating financial pressure, it said.
“While all of these issues had been on our radar screen as we approached 2014, a new development and a key factor for the change in outlook is the unstable and evolving regulatory environment under which the sector is operating,” Moody’s said. “Notably, new regulations and presidential announcements over the last several months with respect to the ACA have imposed operational changes well after product and pricing decisions had been finalized.”
Lawlessness has consequences. I know that many media and Democrats and even some Republicans regard Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a simpleton, but he has governed for more than a decade by a simple set of principles. Regulations, he says, should be minimal, fair and predictable. When you have regulations getting changed by the day, on a whim, to suit whatever the guy atop the government wants on that given day, without regard for the text of the law he’s rewriting on the fly, you introduce unfairness (there will be winners and losers) and unpredictability. That leads to instability. It’s common sense.
That chaos is what Moody’s sees, in Barack Obama’s behavior.
*IRS abused his opponents in 2012.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member