A central tenet of the federal health law was to offer a range of affordable health plans through competition among private insurers. But a wave of insurer failures and the recent decision by several of the largest companies, including Aetna, to exit markets are leaving large portions of the country with functional monopolies for next year.
The unfortunate downside of forcing people to participate.
It turns out that competing sucks, and insurance agencies will do their best to avoid doing it. And because they have purchased legislative power, they don't have to.