A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
Finding out what’s in it: A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs. [emphasis mine]
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Finding out what’s in it: A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs. [emphasis mine]
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Then there is this, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/08/latest-obamacare-surprise-most-wont-be-able-to-buy-health-insurance-until-end/
I didn’t realize they made it illegal to change plans except for approved reasons even if you are on the individual market. This is so stupid.
Thanks for the tip. I have posted this story.
I was listening to a discussion about this very thing the other day and while it appears that you can not buy an ACA approved policy until next year, is it possible to by an un approved policy?
“It’s all closed down. You cannot buy a policy that is a qualified policy for the purpose of the ACA (the Affordable Care Act) until next year on January 1,”
I think it has been established that if you claim some kind of hardship at this point, out of work, disability, just stating some excuse, in time you will not have to pay the penalty, the fee or 1% of your gross income due to the manipulations that the administration is applying. The interesting and / or confusing part of the statement above is “a qualified policy for the purpose of the ACA”. What exactly does that mean? Its unclear to me.
And then there is this:
” The reason sales of health insurance were crammed into short enrollment periods was so insurance companies would have some certainty about who would be in the risk pool, allowing them to set their rates accordingly.”
IMO this whole system is no longer insurance it is being manipulated into a perversion of a business model and welfare. Is there such a thing? Insurance is a business model based in risk spread among a group of individuals where by a price for services or coverage is established. Welfare is a social program designed to help those who are unable, for what ever reason to support their own needs.
I believe that the two can not be successfully combined and what will come out the other end as a solution in the real world is a business model that reflects real world costs divided over demographics and a subsidy paid for by taxation. If the perversion remains (Obamacare, thank you John Roberts for rewriting a bill written, represented and passed as a penalty and calling it a tax) there will have to be something akin to creative destruction that will occur at which point the solution will emerge but in the destruction people will truly suffer. Not to mention that the government has mandated the purchase of a product by the people in order to be a person with legal status in America today.
This all assumes that what appears to be political collusion between the government, the Judicial and the healthcare industry can be unwound and rectified post Obama.
My understanding was that you could not get a subsidy outside of the enrollment period and that insurers could only sell ACA compliant plans regardless of time of year. I could certainly be wrong but I wouldn’t take everything from the link as truth until more people have written on it. They could be confused because in order not to pay the tax, you have to have a plan during the enrollment period, iirc.
If this article is right, look for people to get even more upset once it is known. It runs contrary to a lot of Obama’s rhetoric surprise surprise.