West Virginia Could Suffer Most From Obamacare

A week after Nick Rahall’s financial stake in Massey Energy was highlighted as a result of a clumsy House Majority PAC ad, Rahall is getting more bad news.

According to the National Journal, West Virginia is likely to get the brunt of Obamacare’s negative effects. This is what the National Journal reports:

“West Virginia sticks out as really worrisome,” said Caroline Pearson, vice president at the consulting firm Avalere Health. “Their exchange is not having great luck.”

Premiums will go up, on average, across the board—premiums go up every year.

A range of factors could drive higher-than-average increases in certain places. States that fell short of their overall enrollment goals, and where the people who did enroll are mostly older and sicker, are more at risk for large premium hikes. So are states that don’t have much competition among insurers.

 “If you lose on all of those, then you’re really looking bad,” Pearson said.

 And West Virginia lost on all three fronts this year. It only got about 60 percent of the way to its total enrollment target, Pearson said. And it has the worst mix of young adults in the country—just 19 percent of people who picked a plan through the state’s exchange were young adults, who are presumed to be healthier and thus help keep premiums in check.

 Completing the trifecta, there’s only one insurance carrier—Blue Cross Blue Shield—in West Virginia’s exchange.”

 For the full article, click here.

Let’s not forget that Rahall voted for Obamacare, has repeatedly voted to keep it, and has no regrets at all about supporting it. Something tells me that could be another big problem for Rahall come November 4.

NRCC Comment: “Even though West Virginia stands to suffer from Obamacare more than any other state, Nick Rahall has absolutely no regrets about voting for the law and continually supporting it. Between Rahall’s support for Obamacare and his stunningly out-of-touch  votes against the coal industry, it’s looking more and more like Rahall needs to polish up his resume for that lobbying job he’s sure to apply for when he loses in November.” – NRCC Spokesman Ian Prior