(NaturalNews) The biggest U.S. health insurer is considering pulling out of Obamacare as it loses hundreds of millions of dollars on the program, casting a pall over President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement. (Story by Zachary Tracer, republished from Bloomberg.com.)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. has scaled back marketing efforts for plans sold to individuals this year and may quit the business entirely in 2017. It's an abrupt shift from October, when the health insurer said it was planning to sell coverage through the Affordable Care Act in 11 more states next year, bringing its total to 34. The company also cut its 2015 earnings forecast.

While millions of Americans have gained coverage under Obamacare since new government-run marketplaces for the plans opened in late 2013, in UnitedHealth's case they haven't been the most profitable. Customers the company has added have tended to use more medical care. UnitedHealth also said today that some people are signing up for coverage, getting care and then dropping their policies.

"We cannot sustain these losses," Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley told analysts on a conference call. "We can't really subsidize a marketplace that doesn't appear at the moment to be sustaining itself."

UnitedHealth said it expects as much as $500 million in losses on the Obamacare plans in 2016. The insurer will record $275 million of the costs in the fourth quarter. United also said Thursday it's booking $350 million in losses tied to the 2015 performance of its ACA plans.



The company's shares fell 5.6 percent to $110.63 at the close in New York. Anthem Inc. and Aetna Inc., the two biggest health insurers after UnitedHealth, also declined, as did hospital stocks including HCA Holdings Inc. and Community Health Systems Inc.



Insurance markets rely on premiums paid by healthy people to subsidize the medical costs of the sick. If an insurer sets premiums that are too low or attracts customers that are too sick, it can suffer losses. That can be a particular risk in new markets that an insurer may not be as familiar with.

While UnitedHealth has been slower than some of its rivals to sell Obamacare policies, the announcement may indicate that other insurers are struggling, said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst at Mizuho Securities.

"If one of the largest and presumably, by reputation and experience, the most sophisticated of the health plans out there can't make money on the exchanges, then one has to question whether the exchange as an institution is a viable enterprise," Skolnick said.
 

New Enrollment

The Obama administration pointed out that many people are signing up for Affordable Care Act policies. About 1.1 million people have signed up for coverage in the first two weeks of enrollment, which began on Nov. 1. That's a faster pace than last year, though the second week of sign-ups in 2014 included the Thanksgiving holiday week.

"The reality is we continue to see more people signing up for health insurance and more issuers entering the Marketplaces," Ben Wakana, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said by e-mail. "Today's statement by one issuer is not indicative of the Marketplace's strength and viability."
UnitedHealth said it suspended marketing of its individual exchange plans and is cutting or eliminating commissions for brokers who sell the coverage in many markets.