Another anti-Obamacare talking point bites the dust: Insurance industry doing better than ever

This is a rather awkward post for me, because it cuts to the heart of the main thing I don't like about the Affordable Care Act. As a single-payer advocate, and one who knows all too well the abuses by the health insurance industry in the past, I'm not exactly thrilled about this development. On the other hand, this news also shoots down Yet Another Talking Point® that FOX News/etc. have had about the law: That it would "ruin" the private insurance industry. The ACA has always been a strange hybrid of left-wing/progressive provisions (Medicaid expansion, tax credits to enrollees) and right-wing free market capitalism (the individual mandates and private, for-profit marketplaces). As such...

Even after the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.gov web site a year ago, health insurance companies and providers of medical care are reporting more promising profits as third quarter earnings emerge.

Although the next enrollment period for uninsured Americans seeking coverage from government-run exchanges under the Affordable Care Act doesn’t begin until next month, individuals are still signing up for the expanded Medicaid insurance for poor Americans under the health law in droves. Unlike the open enrollment window for private coverage purchased on exchanges, eligible individuals and families can sign up for Medicaid year round.

The influx of newly insured Americans, particularly as more state and local governments seek private insurers to administer Medicaid benefits has become the October surprise of health insurance profits.