The anchors of CBS This Morning expressed bewilderment on Tuesday at the sharp premium hikes in Obamacare insurance plans, with one asking for an understanding for "why this is happening."
When Obamacare open enrollment begins in 2017, the cost of mid-level plans will rise by an average of 25 percent in the 39 states served by the federal online exchanges. In addition, major providers like Humana, UnitedHealth, and Aetna have scaled back or dropped out of the Obamacare exchanges, leaving roughly 20 percent of consumers with only one insurer to choose from.
After Charlie Rose read out the report, Norah O'Donnell said, "We need a bigger understanding of why this is happening."
"We sure do," Rose said.
"Because the idea was not only to spread coverage around, but that by spreading the coverage around, not only would it help people get more preventative care, but then it would ultimately bring the costs down, and instead, the premiums are skyrocketing," O'Donnell said, sounding exasperated.
"And so the question is, what happened?" Rose said.
"Yeah, and who's profiting on this?" O'Donnell asked.
"What can be done?" Gayle King, a Barack Obama donor, asked.
"Is the way the law was set up failed? It's a really interesting story," O'Donnell said.
Former President Bill Clinton, the husband of Democratic nominee and Obamacare supporter Hillary Clinton, diagnosed some of the law's problems earlier this month, calling Obamacare "the craziest thing in the world."
"You've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half," Clinton said.