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Citing ObamaCare, Maryland’s Largest Insurer Seeks 25-percent Rate Hike
The New American ^ | Apr. 26, 2013 | Michael Tennant

Posted on 04/26/2013 10:09:17 AM PDT by EXCH54FE

you’re wondering just how affordable healthcare will be under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), consider this: Maryland’s largest insurer just proposed, on average, a 25-percent rate hike for individuals next year, with much of that increase directly attributable to the ACA’s mandates.

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, which insures about 70 percent of Marylanders who buy insurance on the individual market — 120,000 people — submitted its proposed rates to the Maryland Insurance Administration. The agency then posted the proposals on its website as required for those carriers seeking to sell coverage on the state’s insurance exchange.

The huge premium increase — CareFirst’s rates have risen about seven to 10 percent annually in recent years — “is the practical result of opening the pool to everyone,” CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell told the Baltimore Business Journal.

Not all CareFirst customers will be affected equally. The 60 percent whose plans aren’t changing next year will experience smaller increases because they will be exempt from some of the ACA’s requirements; but as soon as their plans do change, these people can expect to see their rates skyrocket, too.

Customers who have been paying low premiums because they are healthy can expect to pay much more in order to foot the bill for the benefits the newly insured sick will begin collecting.

The biggest determining factor in how much one’s premiums rise may be age. The ACA requires insurers to charge their oldest customers no more than three times as much as their youngest ones.

CareFirst is also expecting small-group rates to increase by about 15 percent next year because of “new taxes and fees associated with the Affordable Care Act, as well as regular health care cost growth,” according to the Business Journal.

(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
prepare for a new round of regulations to fix the problems ObamaCare has created — and, in turn, to create new ones. The only effective solution is to get rid of the law through either repeal or nullification and then to dismantle the dozens of other obstacles to a free market in healthcare. Anything less is a treatment of the American healthcare system’s symptoms rather than its disease.
1 posted on 04/26/2013 10:09:17 AM PDT by EXCH54FE
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To: EXCH54FE

AFFORDABLE health Care ping!


2 posted on 04/26/2013 10:10:40 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: EXCH54FE

“You’ve got to raise costs to drive down costs.” - Old Commie Lib DemocRAT saying.


3 posted on 04/26/2013 10:11:43 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (I got expelled from the "fundamental transformation" indoctrination center.)
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To: EXCH54FE

But they said more people sharing the burden would bend the cost curve down?

Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid America voters.


4 posted on 04/26/2013 10:18:11 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: EXCH54FE

We told them this was going to happen before they passed it so they could see what was in the bill.

Rates for the younger workers and students will skyrocket when the government forces them to buy a Mercedes budget health care plan, when they have a Yugo budget to pay for it.

Not to mention they are sharing a larger burden of the retirees costs.


5 posted on 04/26/2013 10:26:53 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: EXCH54FE

“Relax. We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”


6 posted on 04/26/2013 10:27:37 AM PDT by Spruce
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To: EXCH54FE

Don’t worry. The members of the House and Senate are working overtime to exempt themselves.


7 posted on 04/26/2013 10:28:56 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: EXCH54FE

Pretty much what I experienced in MA when Romneycare was introduced. People like myself in the individual/small business market carried the whole burden of extended coverage (from 95% to 97% - big deal) and increased costs (far more significant).

Makes me proud to know that I’m subsidizing Fidelity employees and members of IBEW.

Meanwhile, lobbyists for the most fraud-riddled branches of medicine, like physiotherapy and psychotherapy, ensured that insurance had to cover conditions that have nothing to do with basic, catastrophic, insurance.

One of the reasons that Mittens was a real “hold-your-nose” candidate for me in what should have been an “over-broken-glass” election.


8 posted on 04/26/2013 10:43:28 AM PDT by Vide
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To: EXCH54FE

The CareFirst proposed average premium increase for healthy young men will be 150%.

When this happened in Massachussetts under RomneyCare, the first year saw massive non-compliance in the young male population with less than 2 year college degrees. Within 3 years there was something like 76% to 83% of this demographic receiving subsidized health insurance.

It also caused a massive exodus of the young male population with less than 2 year college degrees out of Massachusetts.


Combine ObamaCare premium increases with the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill that would force employers to not offer health insurance to illegal aliens. Young male illegal aliens (with less than a 2 year college degree) would immediately become cheaper to hire in the range of $4000 to $6000 per year.

Calculating the Marginal Productive Value of new hires for companies in Maryland would mean a illegal alien could provide $8000 to $12000 less productivity per year and still be a better hire than a legal resident or citizen.

In short, as written now, citizenry becomes slavery and illegal aliens become parasites hoisted upon pillars of citizens’ tax dollars.


Truly the last breath of the republic.


9 posted on 04/26/2013 10:52:55 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“You’ve got to raise costs to drive down costs.” - Old Commie Lib DemocRAT saying.

“It cost money, because it saves money”

Vincent Guardinia in “Moonstruck”


10 posted on 04/26/2013 12:41:53 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: EXCH54FE
Customers who have been paying low premiums because they are healthy can expect to pay much more in order to foot the bill for the benefits the newly insured sick will begin collecting.

From each according to his ability, to each.... etc.

11 posted on 04/27/2013 2:16:12 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg (hoaxy dopey changey)
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To: listenhillary

Hey, I’m a retiree, and I’m really excited about getting that maternity coverage I always wanted.


12 posted on 04/27/2013 2:19:54 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg (hoaxy dopey changey)
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