The president of Blue Cross/Blue Shield Louisiana told the Monroe News-Star (Gannett) last week insurance rates will sharply increase next year:
The President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, said the average increase in individual insurance rates for Louisiana residents will be between 30 and 40 percent under the Affordable Care Act.
Mike Reitz spoke to The News-Star’s Editorial Board on Wednesday about the anticipated impact the ACA will have on insurance rates.
But Reitz said not everyone will see a rate increase.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Louisiana's largest private health insurer, estimates two-thirds of its customers who buy their own policies will see rate increases in line with those over recent years or will end up paying less for their insurance under the federal health care overhaul. The remaining customers are going to see increases of varying degrees.
“We anticipate about a third (of our customers) seeing pretty significant increases ranging from 18 percent up to over 150 percent,” he said.
He said three components of the ACA’s provisions will play a part in raising health insurance rates.
The first component consists of new taxes and fees, which Reitz said will cost Blue Cross more than $40 million in 2014 and will cost the industry about $8 billion nationally.
The eight new government taxes and fees will directly affect premiums and drive rates up, Reitz said.
The second component Reitz mentioned involves new benefits, which bring new costs.
When the health insurance marketplace, also called an exchange, opens Oct. 1, individuals will be able to go online and essentially shop for insurance.
Reitz said the ACA mandates all insurance plans include a standard package of “essential benefits.” The benefits will come in 10 different categories, adding greater coverage and greater cost to policies.
“It has stripped individuals from their ability to kind of customize their own insurance plan and now these plans will be standardized,” he said. “Some individuals purchase plans that aren’t quite as comprehensive as the plans that are on the exchange, therefore they’re going to have to buy up additional benefits when they go to the exchange.”
The third component that will raise insurance rates will be a new formula used to determine how much a health insurance policy will cost, Reitz said.
Rates will no longer change because of age or health status. As a result, older people and those in poorer health who use more medical services will pay less while those who are younger and healthier who use fewer services will pay more, Reitz said.
Because of those three components, many Americans will end up paying more for their health insurance, Reitz said.
People who make between 138 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently $11,490 for a single-person household according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, can offset some of the rate increases by applying for subsidies from the government, Reitz said. The subsidies are based on income.
Anyone falling outside of those boundaries will not be eligible for government subsidies, he said.
An example of someone who is going to see a 150-percent rate increase, Reitz said, is a young male professional who makes about $48,000 a year, which is more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and currently has a minimal health plan.
“They’re going to be paying for benefits they have not been paying for in the past, and they’re not going to be eligible for subsidies,” Reitz said. “They’re going to get hit with some pretty significant increases.”
Reitz said one point of concern in regard to subsidies is that people will be using the honor system when inputting their household income into the application, which could lead to people falsifying their income level in order to maximize the amount of subsidy they receive from the government. Article
Hmmm..... nothing to see here, move along. The people voted for this in the last two presidential elections. This is what they want.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Louisana BC/BS: Obamacare forcing individual rates to go up.
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5 comments:
Is there any way to stop Obamacare?
Rate increases will "IN LINE WITH THOSE OVER RECENT YEARS" or " will end up paying less".
The increases are, according to Mr. Reitz, tied to increased benefits and the fact that one is no longer penalized as one ages or gets sick .
The latter to me, should never have been a cause for increased rates because those who age and most of those who become sick, paid for years. The money they paid was supposed to be wisely invested so as to more than cover future illness and physical decline associated with aging.
The flaws in Obamacare can be traced to the health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists and the contributions made to national politicians .
We could have had better plans that encouraged competition. But, it worked to make this all about Obama and not about our broken systems.
@ 10:30 pm
Yes. Ted Cruz is the answer. He and Mike Lee have been fighting this fight. Unfortunately, the Mississippi democrats (yes, they are all democrats), won’t get on board. There’s even a website now trying to make the Repubcrats understand they are not towing the line http://www.dontfundobamacare.com/
Some of the democrats and repubcrats are shouting—don’t shut the government down. But if you will search through history, the government has been ‘shut down’ an enormous amount of times. ‘shut down the government’ is the 20th century’s sky-it-falling.
There’s also a little thing going around that simply says—ok fund it, but give waivers to everybody.
I noticed that. Its a poorly written article.
Ha! People are going to be upset by their pocket books being affected by Obamacare. Just wait until their healthcare is crap because of Obamacare!
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