Perhaps it’s time to rechristen Obamacare with a more appropriate nickname—like Dramacare.

Taking the leading role this week: Peter Lee, executive director, Covered California.

Drama aplenty has long accompanied the creation and rollout of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Now, with the very existence of the insurance exchange system being questioned by insurers, the tragi-comic plot is taking a new twist, with regulators like Lee lashing out at the big insurance players.

Lee unleashed a bitter attack on UnitedHealth Group in an interview with California Hotline. He said UnitedHealth Group and others are using the exchange system as a scapegoat for their own poor management skills.

Such manipulation of the facts, he said are “driving me bonkers” and he’s just not going to take it sitting down any longer.

“Instead of saying we screwed up, they said Obamacare is the problem and we may not play any more,” Lee said in an interview with California Healthline. “It was giving an excuse to Wall Street and throwing the Affordable Care Act under the bus.”

Obamacare analysts have said insurers are still experimenting with insurance exchange plan models and it may take time to find the right formula.

An Urban Institute report last fall said their research indicated the insurers were generally seeking modest premium increases, an indication that they were willing to accept losses up front.

Insurers themselves have sent mixed signals to Washington about their confidence in business from exchange consumers. As enrollment numbers continue to make a strong showing, more say they are willing to stick with the book of business because they believe it will pay off down the road.

Meantime, others major insurers, like UnitedHealth, Anthem, and Aetna, have expressed doubts about remaining in the exchange business. And smaller ones, including Moda in Oregon, have been forced out of the marketplace by dizzying losses.

Covered California’s Lee thinks it’s all a bunch of smoke and mirrors by the major players, which have a convenient excuse for poor results now and are using it. He called such tactics “total spin and unanchored in reality.”

Instant Insights /

California exchange czar lashes out at UnitedHealth

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