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When ObamaCare was passed conservatives slammed it as a government takeover of the health insurance industry and progressives complained the law didn’t offer at the least a public option, but it seems as though that the law had a hidden trigger that may very well pave the road to single payer health insurance system or Medicare for all. That trigger is the medical loss ratio. This is the part of the law that makes the health insurance industry use at least 85% of your premiums to cover medical expenses. This is something the for profit health insurance industry detests, because it limits the amount of dollars you pay into the system to go toward CEO pay, bonuses, lobbying and advertisements.

Listen here to my interview with Rick Unger,

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Well, it turns out that the MLR (Medical Loss Ratio) is working rather quickly. In Rick’s latest article

“Among the many companies that are dropping out of the business —rather than comply with the MLR requirements that would force them to actually spend an appropriate share of the premium monies received from customers on real health care— are some of the nation’s largest carriers. Principal Financial Group had already announced late last year that they were leaving the health insurance business, impacting on some 840,000 insured. Another key player in the business, Cigna, has decided to quit the small business market in states like California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. In Colorado and Michigan, insurance giant Aetna is bailing on both the small business and individual markets.”

In fact, even further into the MLR requirements is the fact that Aetna is estimating they will have to pay out $100 million dollars to their subscribers in 2012 for failing to meet the 85% threshold.

As more and more health insurance companies refuse to use 85% of their billions of dollars in premiums to pay for your medical care, they will drop off the face of the earth and will ultimately pave the way for the American government to expand Medicare for everyone.