OBAMA'S LEGACY – AT 9:40 A.M. ET:  We heard the term "death spiral" when Obamacare was first being considered.  It referred to a projected situation in which the program would just start collapsing from within, in an unstoppable series of failures.  We may be at that point right now.  From Fox:   

The leader of one of the U.S.’s largest health insurance agencies—who has been saying for months that ObamaCare is on the ropes-- said Wednesday that statistics indicate that the law has now entered a “death spiral.”

Aetna’s CEO Mark Bertolini told The Wall Street Journal that the health law’s market is nearing failure because healthier people have dropped out while premiums continue to climb.

Health insurer Humana announced it is leaving the law’s public insurance exchanges for next year as it regroups after ending its proposed combination with rival insurer Aetna. Humana Inc. covers about 150,000 people on exchanges in 11 states.

The Trump administration took steps Wednesday intended to help calm jittery insurance companies and make tax compliance with former President Obama’s health law less burdensome for some. The administration's actions signal a change in direction.

COMMENT:  Much of this was anticipated by people smarter and more experienced than those who wrote the Obamacare law, or the man for whom it was named.

Obamacare must be repealed and replaced, or, at the very least, substantially improved.

What enrages me is that Obamacare is based on a false premise – the premise of tens of millions of Americans being "uncovered" before the law was passed.  In truth, all Americans were covered in some way.  If you needed medical care, you could get it through some program.  The problem was that the system was cumbersome, and millions did not have formal plans that they could consult.  The system needed improvement, not the radical overhaul that has been attempted, and is now failing.

February 16,  2017