Brian Blase's research on the Affordable Care Act and the massive insurer losses it caused was featured in the Chicago Tribune. 

"Insurers lost at least $3 billion selling individual plans in 2014, according to researcher Brian Blase, with the Spending and Budget Initiative at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University.

No wonder other insurers warn that they may follow UnitedHealthcare to the exit, unless they win major premium rate hikes for next year. How high will they go? Here's a clue: Insurers received $7 billion in a federal subsidy program in 2014. That program expires at the end of this year. Blase and his colleagues estimate premiums would have had to be 26 percent higher in 2014 without that subsidy.

Other options to balance premiums and medical costs: Insurers can raise deductibles, narrow their networks of hospitals and doctors, or find other ways to cut costs."

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