“(NaturalNews) One of the primary drivers behind President Obama’s quest for Uncle Sam to take over one-seventh of the U.S. economy by engulfing the healthcare industry was that such a huge usurpation of the private sector would at least lead to lower insurance premiums for Americans.
Like so many other aspects of “Obamacare” over which the public was hoodwinked, now comes news that the promise of lower premiums will be, shall we say, elusive, for millions of consumers.
“Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs,” The New York Times reported recently.
Who are the most vulnerable to the increases? That would be small businesses and people who don’t otherwise have employer-provided insurance and who will be forced, thanks to a summer ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding as constitutional the law’s individual mandate requiring everyone – and every business with more than a few employees – to buy coverage.
Face it – premiums are heading higher, period
In California, insurance giants Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield are proposing to hike rates by 22, 26 and 20 percent respectively for some policy holders, according to the companies’ filings with the state for 2013. “These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014,” the Times reported.
In other states such as Ohio and Florida, insurance companies have managed increases of at least 20 percent for some policy holders – increases which can amount to as much as several hundred dollars per month.
Those compare with an average of about 4 percent increases for those with employer-based policies, said the Times.
The double-digit increases come even as some estimates put overall healthcare costs on the decline in recent years as more Americans put off treatment for a variety of conditions due to the economic effects of the Great Recession.
“Growth in health care spending in the United States has slowed considerably since 2009,” says a report from PricewaterhouseCooper, a financial consulting company. “PwC’s Health Research Institute projects medical costs will increase 7.5 percent for 2013, the fourth year in a row of relatively flat growth.”
So at a growth rate of 7.5 percent per annum – which is still high – why are insurance companies requesting double-digit rate increases? Well, insurers say that medical costs for some policy holders have risen much faster than the average….”
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
