[ChildOfThe60s]

Maybe United is angling for an industry bailout.

[builder]

Bingo. Chumming for government bailout, corrections, whatever. Just begging for change basically for the b bargain with the devil they made. It’s all gonna crash on each player, one at a time.

[Qiviut]

The one thing Congress did this year (and last) was made sure that the insurance companies WON'T get much of a bailout, only what is available in the risk pools (money the insurance companies contribute). HHS was going to hit the taxpayers up for the difference between what was in the risk pools to pay out & what the insurance companies actually asked for by moving money from other funds. Due to Congressional action, last year, the insurance companies got just short of 13% of what they asked for, not at all what they were expecting to get. IMO, this just about insures United will bail (I believe they were waiting to see if Congress cut off the gravy train yet again & they did) .... Humana is talking about bailing as well. HHS is lying their @sses off & trying to say 'move along, nothing to see here', but this is huge.

For some excellent reading on the subject:

UnitedHealth Group Losing Big Money and Threatening to Leave the Obamacare Exchanges--Because the Obamacare Insurance Business Model Does Not Work

What happened to risk corridor payments in 2015 - same will happen in 2016 because the same language was put in the budget that passed/Obama signed:

Rubio's provision to kill ObamaCare risk corridors stirs debate

Risk Corridors: Update An amendment to the 2015 federal budget continuing appropriation raises a question: Will insurers receive their full risk corridor payments for 2014?

In addition, the GAO found that HHS has the authority to use its regular operating funds to finance risk corridor payments should the amounts received under the program be less than the payments required to be made to in­surers. This authority was granted under the Program Management Appropriation for fis­cal year 2014 that allows transfers of money from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund necessary to carry out the responsibili­ties of CMS.

The first risk corridor payments are not due until the 2015 fiscal year, however, so similar language was required in the 2015 appropria­tion bill. While the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, which funded the government for the 2015 fiscal year, did give HHS the authority to collect user fees, an amendment was included that specifi­cally prohibited HHS from transferring mon­ey from either trust fund. The amendment did not eliminate the risk corridor program, nor did it prevent HHS from using payments re­ceived from insurers to pay out claims under the program (that is, user fees), but it effec­tively made the risk corridor program budget neutral unless HHS can find another source of funding. As a result, insurers expecting payments from HHS may not receive the full amount due.

Obamacare payment to insurers $2.5 billion less than expected