The spectacular failure of Obamacare is yet another issue that will play into Donald Trump’s hands this election. From Louise Radnofsky at The Wall Street Journal via davidstockmanscontracorner.com:
Big health plans stung by losses in the first few years of the U.S. health law’s implementation are seeking hefty premium increases for individual plans sold through insurance exchanges in more than a dozen states.
The insurers’ proposed rates for individual coverage in states that have made their 2017 requests public largely bear out health plans’ grim predictions about their challenges under the health-care overhaul.
According to the insurers’ filings with regulators, large plans in states including New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia are seeking to raise rates by 20% or more.
In states such as Florida and Maryland, insurers are seeking to raise premiums by percentage averages that are markedly above 10%. Among those that have published so far, only in Vermont do big insurers’ requests fall below 10%.
Proposals still have to be approved by state regulators, and a full picture of final approved rates across the entire country likely won’t be known until shortly before HealthCare.gov and state equivalents reopen for the law’s fourth main enrollment window on Nov. 1.
Nonetheless, the proposed average increases that are available are a vivid indicator this year of how insurers are adapting to the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s transformation of the way health coverage is priced and sold in the U.S.
Making coverage available to everyone regardless of medical history, at the same price and with limited variation based on age is one of the most popular provisions of the law. But it also has increased the cost of insurance for many healthy people, causing a quandary for insurers who are trying to encourage people with cleaner bills of health to buy coverage and offset the costs of sicker enrollees.
The Obama administration had braced for a turbulent time as the full impact of the first few years of the law took hold. Analysts—and some insurers—had warned of heavier-than-expected costs from covering a population that turned out to be sicker than they expected, and many had anticipated that rates would have to rise as a result.
The carriers also project 2017 to be a particularly difficult year as some programs designed to cushion insurers’ losses end. Highmark Inc., a big insurer in three states, is suing the federal government over a shortfall in payments under one such program, known as risk corridors. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania regulators released requests for premium increases, including a filing from Highmark seeking to raise individual plan rates by an average of 38.4%.
To continue reading: Trump’s Secret Weapon——-Massive Hillbama Premium Increases Coming Soon
