Continuing Woes for Obama Care

USA Today is expecting an increase of as much as 25% for insurance premiums in the coming months, according to a recent report. To compound the problem there is an ever-decreasing number of companies to choose from.

“Federal regulators opened the federal exchange Healthcare.gov  for consumers to browse for plans on Monday, as they announced that rates will be up 25% for the plans for which the tax subsidies are calculated.

The Department of Health and Human Services also warned that more than one in five consumers using the site will only have one insurer from which to choose coverage.”

Continuing Woes for Obama Care

Problems continue to plague the program, with many people finding it easier to just pay the penalty than maintain financially prohibitive payment burdens.

One of the latest of many insurance companies to drop from the program is Aetna. Prices of insurance under the AHC are expected to jump significantly again in 2017.

“Aetna's decision to leave the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 11 states follows dozens of similar decisions by large and small insurers across the country, moves that dramatically reduced competition in some states and contributed to increased premiums.

Such a move was inevitable now that insurers have to compete on price instead of which company can attract the healthiest customers, health care experts say.

‘There’s very intense price competition now,” says Sara Collins, vice president of health care coverage and access at the Commonwealth Fund. ‘The market is now functioning in a more typical way, so consequently some are going to do well and others are not.'”

This news comes just a few days after this announcement that regulators approved higher health care premiums to strengthen Obamacare insurers and help keep them solvent — including hikes in at least eight states that were higher than the insurance companies actually requested.

Says USA Today,

“State insurance regulators across the country have approved health care premium increases higher than those requested by insurers, despite a national effort to keep rates for policies sold on Affordable Care Act exchanges from skyrocketing.”