Insurance Companies Content With Obamacare's Emerging "Risk Profile"

Didn't work for Willard.

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 But is there a silver lining for Obama administration on young-adult enrollments? "Young adults account for 27 percent of 'marketplace plan selections' during February, the fifth month, which was consistent with January signups and three percentage points higher 'than their share of plan selections during the first three months,' the report said. At the same time ... the proportion of older adults who are 35 years of age or older, has 'continued to decrease,' the enrollment report said. This will be good news for insurance companies, which have already been telling Wall Street analysts and investors that the risk profile of those signing up has been about what they predicted, an indication that health plans should be able to manage the expenses of those who have signed up." Bruce Japsen in Forbes.

Maybe the age distribution isn't all that important after all. "The age distribution may not be as important as it seems either. Even if the Barack Obama administration falls well short of its goal of about 40 percent of enrollees being young, what matters is the assumptions insurers made in setting their premiums. If insurers guessed the 40 percent figure was too rosy, then missing that threshold won't hurt premiums. And what if everything still goes wrong -- if enrollment remains far short of target months from now, and if the age balance is far enough off to drive up premiums? Then the provisions in the law tenderly known as the three R's -- risk corridors, risk adjustment and reinsurance -- kick in to stabilize premiums, at little or no cost to taxpayers." Christopher Flavelle inBloomberg View.