Rate Increases
Forbes 
(6/6) reported that some health insurers “are proposing big premium hikes in 2016, up to 51%.” While these increases “will probably get whittled down” before they are finalized, shoppers could still face higher prices next year. As such, consumers “need to acquire resources and knowledge that makes them effective shoppers.”
Likewise, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (6/7) reported that people “who bought health insurance through online marketplaces are going to want to shop for a better deal in 2016 and avoid being hit by skyrocketing premium prices.” The article notes that in Western Pennsylvania, “Highmark Inc. has proposed raising premiums by as much as 39 percent.”
Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune (6/8) reports that the big premium hikes that Minnesota insurers proposed last week “reflect losses they’ve been taking in a part of the market targeted by the federal health law.”
A Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press (6/8) editorial cautions that healthcare costs, “the largest determinant of premiums, are on the rise overall, and have been rising astronomically in the past decade,” even before the ACA. The piece adds that regulators last year “forced down many big rate requests, so some of the increases that loom large now may shrink.”
