I just sent this off to our two NY Senators:

I am retired but was an insurance executive in the P&C product line business for 40 years.  I sat on many Insurance Department panels.

 I have seen many of the major insurers pulling out of the ACA exchanges in many states.  Humana just announced it will pull out completely.

If we wrote auto insurance in a state, like NY for example, that had an assigned risk program, we had to participate.  The only way out was to turn in our license.  If we turned in our license to write auto, then we had to turn in our licenses for every product we sold. 

Is there some way for the Federal Government to force these insurers to participate in the ACA exchanges?  Very simply, if they do not, then they can't write any kind of insurance business in that state.

Also, one of the obvious reasons that the ACA is foundering is the fact that the risk pool does not include enough young, healthy folks.  Why isn't more being done to force them to be insured.  Auto insurance is mandatory, so why isn't health insurance?

 

That is what Betsy DeVos, member of the AMWAY family of billionaires, and our new Secretary of Education,  had to say a few days ago after visiting a DC middle school.  This is from someone who never taught anything to anyone-ever!  "They're waiting to be told what they have to do...".  Really?  Go on twitter and read the teachers' and administrators' responses.

@JATrojans
 

So hear I am trying to absorb what just happened today on the Senate floor.  Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General and fossil fuel advocate, was confirmed as EPA Secretary.  This even though the thousands of emails between him and the fossil fuel industry leaders, including the Koch brothers, will not be available until next Tuesday.

Pruitt is a man who accepted well over $300,000 in contributions from the fossil fuel industry and actually sued the EPA more than 13 times. He clearly is on the wrong side of the war on climate change and has no interest in any environmental protections.  Almost 800 former EPA staffers signed a letter opposing him.  But none of this matters to a Republican Senate majority.  BTW, what is happening to Manchin.  He has been voting with the Republicans on almost everything.

To add insult to injury, the so called president signed an executive order rolling back President Obama's executive order keeping the coal industry from dumping toxic waste into our waterways. Unfortunately, I think we will see much more of this.  I am so sad for our kids and grand kids.