If you listen to the newly-in-charge Republicans, the Affordable Care Act’s insurance markets are in a “death spiral,” which has sprouted change to reshape the health care system. However, new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office contradict this point, maintaining that the Obamacare markets will remain stable in the long term as long as there are no significant changes. Further, the office ensures that any recent woes in the health care system are not the same as a death spiral. On the other hand, insurers are insisting that lawmakers make changes in order for them to remain in the market, as they praise some of the early steps that the Trump Administration has taken to stabilize a volatile market. The new health care proposal as it stands will make the market less stable in the short term but equally stable in the long term, so plans of a death spiral seem premature.
See Reed Abelson & Margot Sanger-Katz, Obamacare Isn’t in a ‘Death Spiral.’ (Its Replacement Probably Won’t Be Either.), N.Y. Times, March 15, 2017.
