What Caused the ACA Rate Surge?

Here is the answer, in 100 words or less: ACA permits people to sign up even if they are already sick. Real insurance cannot work that way. Imagine an Accountable Fire Insurance Act that required insurers to sell you fire insurance after your home had burned. Homeowner insurance rates would skyrocket. Anyone who carefully read the ACA would have seen that coming. The big insurers knew this would happen but played along in the beginning to avoid attracting political fire. When 75% of Americans get a taxpayer subsidy under ACA, it isn’t really insurance but more of an income redistribution mechanism…for better for worse. There it is, 96 words.