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Obamacare May Force Some Insurers to Boost Their Premiums an Alarming Amount
Slate ^ | May 22, 2015 | Mark Joseph Stern

Posted on 05/22/2015 10:48:33 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

On the whole, the Affordable Care Act is working pretty well, getting more people insured and increasing the quality of insurance overall. But on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported an alarming development: Health insurers on many state exchanges are looking to boost their premiums a ridiculous amount in 2016. New Mexico's leading provider, for instance, is seeking a 51.6 percent hike, while Maryland's is seeking a 30.4 percent hike. (Insurers in other states, like Vermont and Indiana, are asking for minimal increases.)

Libertarian and conservative outlets are, predictably, citing the rate hike as yet another Obamacare catastrophe. But it's actually a fairly foreseeable—and possibly temporary—problem. The ACA forced a bunch of uninsured people to get insurance. A hefty amount of these newly insured people were sick when they joined their new plan. Suddenly able to afford treatment, these sick people drained insurers' funds. But as they regain their health and remain on their plan, they'll stop draining their insurers' resources and start boosting them instead...

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: aca; exchanges; healthinsurance; obamacare
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
These are all proposed hikes: In many states, insurance regulators can force insurers to justify their rate increases, and some can reject any increase they find to be unjustified.

  Thank goodness, the states can reject the increases and thus force the insurance companies out of business.
41 posted on 05/23/2015 3:14:44 AM PDT by Maurice Tift (Never wear anything that panics the cat. -- P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"Obamacare May Force Some Insurers to Boost Their Premiums an Alarming Amount"


42 posted on 05/23/2015 3:38:47 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Rodamala

I know.

Whoda thunk it?


43 posted on 05/23/2015 3:42:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: TigersEye
You’d have to be stone ignorant of economics, human nature and history to write a statement as comical as that.

Bingo, you have succinctly noted a prime characteristic of all leftists!

44 posted on 05/23/2015 4:27:03 AM PDT by ExSES (the "bottom-line")
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I suspect these same insurance companies will be submitting refund requests this summer to cover loses implementing ACA.


45 posted on 05/23/2015 4:32:05 AM PDT by EVO X
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

LOL…the morons at Slate must not have heard that the NHS in England has had to pass regulations to kick malingerers out of the hospitals because they wanted to live there.
A sizable percentage of these subsidized patients with their many illnesses related to their unhealthy lifestyle will not be cured in a year. To say so is simply silly.


46 posted on 05/23/2015 4:55:02 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: Gen.Blather
I know several dentists who repair those tourista dental reconstruction jobs. Their charges take the overall expenditure to more than the original estimate. Happens in about 15% of the cases I am familiar with.

One problem with tourista medicine is that if there are problems you have to go back to wherever you went to get things fixed. Sometimes there are disputes and if you feel you got shorted there is not a lot you can do.

47 posted on 05/23/2015 5:29:41 AM PDT by corkoman
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The over use and resultant increases in costs will abruptly cease when the whole nightmare is ended with the end of the current policy year as a result of the Supreme Court verdict to be handed down in June


48 posted on 05/23/2015 5:33:30 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

About the author:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/mark-joseph-stern-immaculate-conception-original-sin/


49 posted on 05/23/2015 5:57:37 AM PDT by savedbygrace (But God!)
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To: All

Stopped reading after the first sentence.


50 posted on 05/23/2015 6:11:29 AM PDT by bennowens
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To: savedbygrace
How about that....


51 posted on 05/23/2015 6:56:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: bert

Suppose 0bozo completely oversteps the Supreme Court ruling, just as he does with Congress, the Constitution and everything else?


52 posted on 05/23/2015 6:59:44 AM PDT by Patriot777 (Imagine....that we could see Obama being hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Our rates have already quadrupled! Not sure how much more we can afford!


53 posted on 05/23/2015 7:00:11 AM PDT by Bookwoman ("...and I am unanimous in this...")
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
These are all proposed hikes: In many states, insurance regulators can force insurers to justify their rate increases, and some can reject any increase they find to be unjustified.

And if the insurance regulators reject the increases, more companies will go under and the big insurance monopolies will gobble them up.

I'm just not so sure, as some claim, that people will be clamoring for single payer. They've seen first hand how badly the government has screwed this thing up from the get go. Are they really going to buy into a total government takeover?

54 posted on 05/23/2015 7:04:32 AM PDT by randita (...Our First Lady is a congenital liar - William Safire, 1996)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

“Libertarian and conservative outlets are, predictably, citing the rate hike as yet another Obamacare catastrophe. But it’s actually a fairly foreseeable—and possibly temporary—problem. The ACA forced a bunch of uninsured people to get insurance. A hefty amount of these newly insured people were sick when they joined their new plan. Suddenly able to afford treatment, these sick people drained insurers’ funds. But as they regain their health and remain on their plan, they’ll stop draining their insurers’ resources and start boosting them instead.”

Silliness.

If it was foreseeable, why didn’t anyone on the left mention this before now? It’s a tad late to say it now.

It’s the massive subsidies that are bankrupting Obamacare, not the sick people. Unless it’s the sick people getting subsidies. Those are the only ones able to get any benefit from this bill. Everyone else has HUGE deductibles that they can’t afford after paying the HUGE premiums.

It is worse than a catastrophic plan. You have the coverage of a catastrophic plan with the big deductibles, with the payment of a good PPO plan. Lose-lose...


55 posted on 05/23/2015 7:15:55 AM PDT by Hardens Hollow (Couldn't find Galt's Gulch, so created our own Harden's Hollow to quit paying the fascist beast.)
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To: Rocky

“...the choices of insurance company will diminish until the Democrats can say, “The only way we can make it work is Single Payer. The government will be your insurance company.” ....”

Ding! Ding! Ding!


56 posted on 05/23/2015 8:09:25 AM PDT by Calpublican (No Comprendo)
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