Analysts at Standard & Poor's say the new federal health insurance risk management programs could end up working reasonably well.
Whether the "3 Rs" programs and the public exchanges succeed or not, most of the big carriers trying to write commercial "qualified health plans" should do fine, the analysts say.
S&P gave that assessment in a 2014 forecast released Monday.
Joseph Marinucci, an S&P credit analyst, acknowledged today at a press conference that the enrollment websites and back-office systems continue to have problems.
The exchanges were hoping they could sign about 7 million QHP enrollees in 2014 and about 7 million new Medicaid enrollees, and the likelihood the exchanges will reach those targets now seems low, Marinucci said.
But Marinucci said he thinks, based on conversations with carrier reps, the amount and quality of enrollment data getting to the QHP issuers is improving, even at the back-office level.
To a lay reader, the government documents describing three big PPACA exchange plan risk management programs – the "3 Rs" – look complicated.
