Insurers Cut Commissions to Restrict When and What Plans People Buy

The free market will always stay ahead of the rules and regulations promulgated by bureaucrats.  Here is another classic example of how Obamacare staggers along like Frankenstein, resulting in obscure ways for insurers to try and guard profits:  

• Insurers increasingly are dropping agent commissions to discourage the sale of the Obamacare plans on which they are losing money.  
• Insurance agents now enroll about half of those who buy insurance on the government exchanges.  
• A study out Tuesday by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association found the cost of medical care for those newly enrolled in ACA plans were 19% higher in 2014 and 22% higher in 2015.  
• Insurance was supposed to be easier to buy, so it was assumed agents would not be needed to buy ACA plans. The opposite has happened. 
• Some insurers have gone so far as to drop commissions on different types of plans in different states, particularly gold and platinum plans, which attract people with the most health problems because of their low deductibles. 

Full story: Insurers cut commissions to restrict when and what plans people buy, USA Today, March 31, 2016.