What Makes Sammy Run?

Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s take on the collapse of a healthcare insurance company serving Iowa:

Liberals claim ObamaCare is “working,” whatever that means, but the reality is that the law is seeding the insurance markets with land mines that will explode over time. The sudden detonation of a taxpayer-backed insurer in Iowa and Nebraska is an early warning.

and

Yet the rational calculation is to game ObamaCare’s rules to undercut competitors and capture market share. If premiums don’t cover claims, the deficit can be absorbed by ObamaCare’s reinsurance and risk corridor and adjustment programs that are supposed to provide a safety net against major insurer losses.

But CoOpportunity flew too close to the sun. The company’s reserves fell 66% between January and October, and then cash on hand and assets plunged to $17.2 million in December from $47 million in October as costs swamped premium revenue. A $125.6 million payout from reinsurance can’t legally be made until late next year. CoOpportunity asked HHS for an emergency bailout, which was denied in mid-December as the result of restrictions on co-op and reinsurance financing that Congress passed over the last two years.

The recklessness of CoOpportunity and its federal enablers is unfortunately now mundane. There will be more such failures in the years ahead.

I wonder if those are really what’s motivating insurance company executives? Maybe that with a large dollop of IBGYBG.