What Republicans and Democrats Don’t Understand About the Insurance Company “Bailout”

What Republicans and Democrats Don’t Understand About the Insurance Company “Bailout” | John Goodman's Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org:

"The third vehicle is the risk corridor, which basically redistributes funds from profitable insurers to unprofitable ones.
Unlike the first two vehicles, however, this adjustment is not revenue neutral.
If the entire market turns out to be unprofitable, the federal government steps in to subsidize some of the losses.
In fact, there is potentially an unlimited taxpayer liability here — at least for the next three years.

By the way, did you know that there is a similar risk corridor in the Medicare Part D program — one that was never sunset?
And because insurers are overall profitable in that market, the federal government actually is making an annual profit from the Part D risk corridor. 
In essence, seniors are overpaying for drugs and the federal government is pocketing the overpayments. (We’ll save this scandal for another day.)"