Last week Oregon’s insurance commissioner, Laura Cali, announced that the state had approved a 25 percent premium increase for the largest health insurer on the state’s exchanges. The second largest insurer did even better: It received permission to boost its monthly charge to consumers by 33 percent.
Oregon might be the first health insurance exchange equivalent of a penguin getting shoved off an ice floe, but it won’t be alone in the freezing-cold waters for long. For example, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee requested an average 36 percent price increase for the plans it offers—after receiving a 19 percent bump last year. And that sounds like a relative bargain compared with Minnesota and New Mexico, where the BlueCross BlueShield family is looking for increases of more than 50 percent. Even if the final numbers are lower than the asks, it seem
But Kevin Drum assured me that the premium increases would “only” be 4.8 percent. What happen!
How dumbass Dems can continue defending the ACA I have no idea.
There was never a chance in hell that the ACA would do anything to control health care costs for individuals. Now that it’s passed and the initial furor has died down, the insurance companies are going to jack the rates right up and continue to do so.
I don’t mind saying I told you so, so: I told you so.
So there.