[mherdeg]

I *swear* that a year or two into this whole thing there were a wave of articles about how individual state marketplaces were having insurers exit the state marketplace. The story which I am *sure* I read more than once said that an insurer found they were losing money on a small number of patients with very expensive treatment needs which drove up their costs so much that no one else wanted to buy their product at its new price.

I went looking for articles about this recently and couldn't find them any more. Did I imagine this happening?

[dragonwriter]

I think a lot of this was related to the risk corridor payments insurers were entitlted to for 2014-2016 but which Congress simply refused to fund, resulting in a lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court in 2020 ruling that, yes, the payments had to be made.

[ceejayoz]

The loss of the individual mandate also probably plays a big role.

[s1artibartfast]

I imagine that would hurt the situation not help it. The individual mandate was intended and served more healthy individuals into the insurance pool.

[dragonwriter]

> The individual mandate was intended and served more healthy individuals into the insurance pool.

More people in the pool makes costs more predictable, and more healthy people in the pool makes them lower. The loss lf the individual mandate driving them out made costs less predictable and on-average higher, and higher rates themselves increase opt-outs, reinforcing the effect.

[s1artibartfast]

Indeed. sorry if it wasnt clear that was what I was saying.

[jxramos]

Yah I recall hearing stories of that. I was in the individual market at this time shopping for bronze silver and gold plans and trying to make sense of it all. This was the era where the world of https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-aca/pre-existing-co... entered the lexicon.

[s1artibartfast]

Sounds familiar to me. I imagine the issue was resolved by simply by the increase in healthcare cost and spending.