Is anyone surprised that rates are rising again? This is on top of our 2014 rate increases. If you recall, President Obama promised that rates on AVERAGE would go DOWN $2500 per family per year. Was he referring to the people receiving subsidies? I don't know. So for the past 25 years that I have been selling health insurance, I only remember one year that rates were flat or actually went down. Bill Clinton was in office and Hillary was behind closed doors trying to create (in secret) a national healthcare system...or that's what some people think. After days of brainstorming how to fix the 'healthcare crisis', do you remember what happened? Nothing! I guess they couldn't come up with a solution.
But it's not the mid 90's; it's 2014 and the healthcare law was signed over 4 years ago and been implemented in parts since Sept 23, 2010. We are about to finish one year under ACA Plans (for most people; some will be converted later this year) and the results are in: rates are going up on average about 8.2 percent according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, “which has conducted the most thorough review to date,” the average increase for ACA plans “will be 8.2 percent next year in 29 states and the District of Columbia where data about health insurance premiums for 2015 are available.” That doesn't sound too bad, right? But let's take a closer look, by a few areas...
In, Arizona the average premium increase submitted to the state for approval was 11.2 percent, but rates ranged from a decrease of 23 percent to a spike of 27 percent. In Arkansas , where the average increase was 11.2 percent, some consumers could see their premiums soar by 50 percent. Covered California announced that the average statewide increase in premiums would be 4.2 percent in 2015. But the Los Angeles Times reported that the state's insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, said residents of California have paid between 22 percent and 88 percent more for health insurance in 2014 than they did in 2013, before Obamacare's major provisions went into effect.
Read more and see color coded map with above or below normal averages by state: Washington Examiner. Heatlhcare premiums increase across the country