Health insurance companies are requesting big hikes for their ObamaCare plans next year — and blame instability in the health insurance market for driving up premiums.
In Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia, premiums for Affordable Care Act plans could rise more than 20 percent on average, Bloomberg News reported.
In Connecticut, the requested rate hikes for individuals ranged from 8.4 percent to 52.1 percent. Maryland insurers asked for 9.1 percent to 150.8 percent for individuals, while in Virginia insurers filed for from 1 percent to 179 percent increases for individuals. The three are the first states to make their filings public.
The increases follow years of soaring premiums under ex-President Obama.
Insurers say the hikes can be partially blamed on uncertainty about the law’s requirement — called the individual mandate — that people carry insurance or face a penalty.
The Trump Administration wants the mandate removed when ObamaCare is overhauled.
“Failure to enforce the individual mandate makes it far more likely that healthier, younger individuals will drop coverage and drive up the cost for everyone,” Chet Burrell, CEO of Maryland’s CareFirst, said in a statement.
Burrell said uncertainty over the mandate played a “significant role” in the insurer’s steep rate requests.
Republicans and Team Trump want to repeal much of the law, and say the rising premiums are proof it isn’t working.
“Republican senators will not let the American people down! ObamaCare premiums and deductibles are way up – it was a lie and it is dead!” the president tweeted on Sunday.
At the same time, insurers blame a lack of support for ObamaCare’s programs for the increases, and have asked for help.
“It would be good to have some more aggressive stabilization efforts going on,” said Joel Ario, a managing director at Manatt Health who previously worked on ObamaCare at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Uncertainty equals higher premiums.”
Others pointed the finger at rising prescription drug and other costs.
“We are seeing claims experience that reflects increased medical and prescription drug costs along with higher utilization,” Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade said in a statement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has said the administration will do what it can to “support the reform effort by reviewing and initiating administrative actions to put patients, families and doctors in charge of medical decisions, bring down costs, and increase choices.”
The rate requests are preliminary, and regulators often order lower rates than requested.
Most other states will report their rate requests over the next several months.
The GOP’s ObamaCare repeal and replace effort is now before the Senate after it narrowly passed the House last week.
No one expects a new bill to be written quickly, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already gotten the ball rolling, including himself in a group of 12 GOP senators tasked with privately producing a bill that can pass the Senate. Republicans control the chamber 52-48.
But Democrats are virtually certain to unanimously oppose the Republican effort to repeal the law.
So Republicans are using a process to prevent a Democratic filibuster that would require 60 votes to end.
McConnell will need 50 GOP votes to pass a bill, a tie Vice President Pence could break.
With Post Wires