America’s third-largest health insurer, Aetna, says its Obamacare enrollments are on pace to fall as much as 30% by the end of 2014.
As Investor’s Business Daily reported on Monday, Aetna had 720,000 Obamacare sign-ups as of May 20. By the end of June, Aetna’s paying Obamacare customers had fallen to less than 600,000. By year’s end, the health insurance giant told IBD it projects that number will drop to “just over 500,000.”
“I think we will see some attrition…We’re already seeing it. And we expect that to continue through the end of the year,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said during a conference call.
Aetna is not alone. Cigna says its Obamacare enrollments are moving down as well.
The Obamacare retention problem could be the result of myriad factors, including individuals who never paid their first month’s premium, fell on hard economic times, changed to a job with insurance, or hit the harsh wall of reality surrounding Obamacare’s high deductibles, reports IBD.
Nationally, Obamacare remains deeply unpopular. According to the latest Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation poll, just 37% of Americans now support Obamacare.