ObamaCare delay increases insurers' costs, says health policy analyst

A health policy analyst suggests an extension for ObamaCare enrollment is a bad idea and will only create more uncertainty for insurance companies.

Health and Human Services claims it has seen a surge in interest, and wants to ensure that consumers who may be in line have time to complete enrollment.

Even so, Yevgeniy Feyman with the Manhattan Institute thinks that by doing this delay, along with all the previous changes, the black letter of the law is no longer visible.

“They’ve changed it significantly,” he says, “and it’s really just a political ploy to get more people enrolled to make the make the law look better the first year.”

It’s unclear how long the extension will last, although The Associated Press reports that some people have urged the administration to go as late as April 15.

Feyman says the delay creates uncertainty among insurers, and those insurers have to “price in that uncertainty,” which adds to the cost.

Several insurance companies supported the Affordable Care Act in the legislative process. Based on that, did insurance companies create some of the uncertainty?

“I don’t think any of them were expecting this,” Feyman says of the healthcare legislation, which he describes as more “disastrous” than insurers could have predicted.

“It’s a good thing that we’re expanding health care to people who didn’t have it before,” he tells OneNewsNow. “But it’s just the way that we’re doing it is not good. It’s downright terrible right now.