HUGE OBAMACARE PREMIUM HIKES
EXPECTED FOR 2017
Amid rising drug and health
care costs and roiling market dynamics, the spokesperson for the nation’s
health insurers is predicting substantial increases next year in Obamacare
premiums and related costs.
Without
venturing a specific percentage increase, Marilyn Tavenner, the president and
CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said in an interview with Morning Consult that the culmination of market shifts
and rising health care costs will force stark increases in health insurance
rates in the coming year.
“I’ve been asked, what are the premiums going
to look like?” she said. “I don’t know because it also varies by state, market,
even within markets. But I think the overall trend is going to be higher than
we saw previous years. That’s my big prediction.”
If
Tavenner is right, Obamacare will jump dramatically—last year’s premium for the
popular silver-level plan surged 11 percent on average. Although
Tavenner didn’t mention deductibles, in 2016, some states saw jumps of 76
percent, while the average deductible for a 27-year-old male on a silver plan
was 8 percent.
The warning to consumers from Tavenner, the former administration official who
headed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and oversaw the
disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, comes at a time of
growing uncertainty about the evolving makeup of the Obamacare health insurance
market. With many insurers struggling to find profitability in the program, the
collapse of nearly half of the 23 Obamacare insurance co-ops and this week’s
announcement that giant UnitedHealth Group intends to pull out of most
Obamacare markets across the country, anticipating future premiums and
co-payments is largely risky guesswork.
The Fiscal Times
April 21, 2016
April 21, 2016
