Many are proposing double-digit premium increases for individual policies, with some companies looking to boost rates more than 60%, according to a list posted Monday by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In Florida, for instance, United Healthcare (UNH) wants to raise the rates of plans sold on the Obamacare exchange by an average of 18%. Individual policies available outside the exchange through United Healthcare or through a broker would go up by 31%, on average, with hikes as high as 60% for certain plans in certain locations.
In Texas, insurer Scott & White is looking for a 32% increase for exchange-based plans, while Humana (HUM) is asking for an average 30% boost for its exclusive provider organization policies, which generally cover only in-network services.
Insurers say they want to hike rates because enrollees are going to the doctor, getting lab work and filling prescriptions more than they had originally anticipated.
“We’ve seen a great pent-up demand for services,” said Aaron Billger, spokesman for Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee offering plans in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. Enrollees in Obamacare exchange plans use more healthcare than those in job-based policies, he noted.
Insurers submitted their proposed rate hikes for individual policies sold both on and off Obamacare exchanges for review by state officials. The government’s list includes insurers that requested increases of 10% or more. Insurers can opt to offer plans on the exchanges, directly or via both methods, but policies with similar coverage must be priced the same.
Rates for Obamacare plans have been closely watched — and their affordability hotly debated — since the exchanges first opened in 2014. Insurers had a tough time setting rates in the first two years because they didn’t have a lot of data on how much customers would visit the doctor. Now they can base their prices on actual usage, said David Axene, fellow at the Society of Actuaries, an industry group. Some insurers may have underestimated and set their prices too low in 2014 and 2015.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina cited hospital in-patient care, particularly cancer and heart conditions, emergency room visits and specialty drugs as major contributors to its proposed 26% hike.
Insurers, however, probably won’t be granted all that they seek. Insurance commissioners in 36 states have the power to deny the rate requests, though they usually negotiate smaller hikes with insurers.
Also, the requested rate changes for 2016 can vary widely based on the specific plan. United Healthcare, for instance, noted it’s only asking for a 1.2% increase on some of its plans. This reinforces the need for consumers to shop around when open enrollment begins in November and not just renew their existing plan.
While the proposed rate hikes seem steep, they won’t hit Obamacare enrollees as hard since most receive federal subsidies. But even subsidized enrollees will have to pay more depending on the plan they select. Those signing up for individual coverage outside an exchange will pay full freight since they aren’t eligible for subsidies.
Rates will be finalized in coming weeks, but consumers may not learn the final prices until just before enrollment opens.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/news/economy/obamacare-rates/
“Individual policies available outside the exchange through United Healthcare or through a broker would go up by 31%, on average, with hikes as high as 60% for certain plans in certain locations.”
Ray Charles could have seen THIS one coming.
pass
I’ve taken far better care of my own health than ANY so-called ‘medical’ establishment ‘entities’ ever have.
Stevie Wonder too, I wonder.
#1 NWO Hatr, news is spreading about how people can take care of themselves and each other much more effectively, and much cheaper. I think the people are winning this one.
In the past year, I have personally known at least 10 individuals who have given up on pharmaceutical medicine and are now using natural healing methods — with fantastic results. As we all talk about our successes and speak up about the truth of pharmaceuticals, news spreads and more and more are catching on. It is exponential.
It is becoming mainstream to talk about this kind of thing — whereas even 5 years ago it was a little nutty.
Economically, people have no choice. We have been squeezed to the point where you can’t get blood from a stone. If we want to be healthy, we have to learn to take care of ourselves. How interesting, in this nanny state, that pushing so much controlling slavery onto us is waking more and more up.
Healthwise, people are drawing the conclusions that pharmaceuticals are all about profit and death and illness, and extrapolating those realizations to other matters of authoritarian control. The dots are being connected FOR us. None of this is being done in secret anymore.
THAT is something I have noticed and wondered about.
However…. there are more of us than there are of them.
It’s simply incredible to me that people actually believe that radiation & chemo ‘treatments’ are of ANY benefit whatsoever, EE.
‘Programming’ works, obviously.
For those who are undergoing treatment or have undergone treatment, the programming is SO deep, you are right, #1NWOHatr.
I think there is too much at stake, to admit having been so gullible and allowing such damage to be done to yourself, it is one of those things probably too hard and painful to forgive in oneself.
I have a friend who helps her friends diagnosed with cancer, find natural treatments, yet this same friend will not admit that her own disfiguring cancer treatment 15 years ago probably was not necessary. She was told she would DIE without it, and so she submitted. And that is her myth about being a long-term cancer survivor. When actually she is a cancer TREATMENT survivor. She refuses to discuss or entertain the possibility that maybe she was “had,” and would have her intact body to this day, had she not given into the fear-mongering doctor.
I bet all of us know a person like this.
Really makes me angry at times.
Since losing my mother & sister to their voodoo witch doctor ‘cures’, it makes me angry ALL the time, EE! 😡
HMSA (blue cross blue shield) here in the islands is seeking a 49.1% rate hike,,,
Aint socialism grand
Will Obamacare death spiral before the “election?”
It,s almost two years since my surgery. Haven’t seen a doctor since. Feel great, since taking NWO,s advice. Diet is everything. Especially with colon cancer.
I just cancelled my obama care. I,ll pay the fine instead.
You’re one of the few I know personally who has, Mark.
The few who have are still alive… and cancer free (myself included).
Health care was skyrocketing WAAAAAY before Obamacare. It’s the whole health care system since the 1980’s. Before Obamacare, YEARS before Obamacare, I was paying close to $1,000/month for crappy insurance for my wife and I. So that’s BEFORE Obamacare. I think with or without Obamacare, the U.S. health care system stinks.
I sometimes wonder what health care might look like, economically speaking, if we did away with insurance altogether except for catastrophic, which I presume would cost a lot less and would be the thing to keep us from being bankrupted in case of injury needing emergency care.
Then, we could have a healthy food supply and everyone would know what to eat to keep themselves healthy, and would not feed themselves poisons (imagine that). This food supply would be accessible and affordable and decentralized. Not to mention that if we no longer had to spend so much of our money on unnecessary insurance and treatments, we would have more money to put towards health-giving items and activities.
Many of us would have our own gardens and know how to cook.
Quite a few of us would have knowledge of herbal remedies and know how to identify these among the plants grown locally. Herbal medicine would be affordable and in many cases, free. Basic and intermediate first aid would be widely available knowledge, and in many cases we could simply take care of ourselves. Doctors and surgeons would still be needed for serious injuries. Knowledgeable naturopathic practitioners could take care of the rest.
There would be no such thing as an illegal plant. Nor would it be illegal to help heal ourselves, our family, friends and neighbors with herbal treatments (or simply no treatment, and allow the body to heal itself without interference).
People would understand what cancer and diabetes actually are, and would know how to prevent these illnesses and treat them naturally and inexpensively when they do occur.
In a free society, pharmaceutical medicine and vaccines would still be available for those who would choose them, but most people would not make those choices, because increasingly it would be obvious that the healthier members of the population do not take them.
Childbirth would be supported by midwives in the community and with good prenatal nutrition and less interference with our bodies’ natural processes, complications would be rare.
Decisions made out of fear would be a thing of the past, because most people would know the truth about healing and illness and be able to apply that knowledge intelligently.
I like to imagine such things. The people take back their own power and take care of themselves and each other, and not give over this responsibility to the profiteers who would make us into mere merchandise.
Medical insurance is a fear-based product. It is in demand because the profiteers have engineered society with so many constraints and interferences, that we are no longer fully in charge of our own health.
Also, health insurance is not health care.
People need health CARE…not health INSURANCE.
Amen to that, Big Dan.
Imagine that! The mandatory health care instituted by your leader is going to skyrocket.
Pay more or die.