[toomuchtodo]

You're correct. They are losing money, and they are withdrawing from those markets in question.

Its important to note that the backstop payments those insurers were to receive from the federal government are being tied up by Congress, to stick a wrench in the ACA.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/12/17/Congress-Weakens-Ob...

The elephant in the room is: How do we spend less on healthcare for everyone when so many people have vested interests in the status quo? Change must come from the outside, and must be applied with force.

[maxerickson]

I guess. Congress preventing Fed Gov from reimbursing insurance companies for their huge losses isn't really evidence that those companies are doing well though.

[mrfusion]

Why are we going to end up with single payer? I didn't follow that part of your argument.

[toomuchtodo]

I removed that part of my comment, as I thought it was not relevant to the specific point.

As the US population ages, more and more people will be on Medicare [1]. This increases its power, and removes almost entirely the likelihood it would be scaled back.

We will eventually have no choice but to move to single payer, as the cracks in the current model (dictated by the ACA) are already forming.

[1] https://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p25-1140.pdf (warning: pdf)