It’s going to go up.
With the results sure to affect politics as well as pocketbooks, health insurers are preparing to raise rates next year for plans issued under the Affordable Care Act.
But how much depends on their ability to predict how newly enrolled customers — for whom little is known regarding health status and medical needs — will affect 2015 costs.
“We’re working with about a third of the information that we usually have,” said Brian Lobley, senior vice president of marketing and consumer business at Pennsylvania’s Independence Blue Cross. “We’ve really been combing the data to get a first look.”
The Democrats foisted this criminal law on the American people. Yet even while it is failing, and it’s motivating voters to vote out the Democrats who voted for it, Republican resistance to it seems to be crumbling. Which is odd, going into an election which could prove to be a referendum on repealing it, or at least could be called that once Republicans win it.
Even though it may really pinch Americans very hard after the mid-terms, and we’ll get the estimates before the mid-terms.
The 2014 enrollment period closed at the end of March for most consumers. Carriers selling medical plans on HealthCare.gov must file initial 2015 rate requests with federal regulators in late May or June — even though they have little idea about the health and potential costs of their newly enrolled members. Deadlines also loom for state-run exchange filings.
WellPoint, the biggest player in the online exchanges, is talking about double-digit rate hikes for 2015. Such increases would give ammunition to Republican critics before the November elections.
Yes, they would. If the Republicans choose to run to win.
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