A new study conducted by Avalere and released earlier today found that Obamacare rates will surge an average of 34% across the country in 2018. Of course, this is in addition to the 113% average premium increase from 2013 and 2017, which brings the total 5-year increase to a staggering 185%.
Meanwhile, and to our complete shock no less, Avalere would like for you to know that the rate increases are almost entirely due to the Trump administration’s “failure to pay for cost-sharing reductions”…which is a completely reasonable guess if you’re willing to ignore the fact that 2018 premium increases are roughly in-line with the 29% constantly annualized growth rates experienced over the past 4 years before Trump ever moved into the White House…but that’s just math so who cares?
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New analysis from Avalere finds that the 2018 exchange market will see silver premiums rise by an average of 34%. According to Avalere’s analysis of filings from Healthcare.gov states, exchange premiums for the most popular type of exchange plan (silver) will be 34% higher, on average, compared to last year.
“Plans are raising premiums in 2018 to account for market uncertainty and the federal government’s failure to pay for cost-sharing reductions,” said Caroline Pearson, senior vice president at Avalere. “These premium increases may allow insurers to remain in the market and enrollees in all regions to have access to coverage.”
Avalere experts attribute premium increases to a number of factors, including elimination of cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, lower than anticipated enrollment in the marketplace, limited insurer participation, insufficient action by the government to reimburse plans that cover higher cost enrollees (e.g., via risk corridors), and general volatility around the policies governing the exchanges. The vast majority of exchange enrollees are subsidized and can avoid premium increases, if they select the lowest or second lowest cost silver plan in their region. However, some unsubsidized consumers who pay the full premium cost may choose not to enroll for 2018 due to premium increases.
Of course, not all residents are treated equally when it comes to premium hikes. So far, Iowa is winning the award for greatest percentage increase at 69%, with Wyoming, Utah and Virginia close behind.
On an absolute basis, Wyoming wins with the average 50 year old expected to drop nearly $1,200 per month (or roughly the cost of a mortgage) on health insurance premiums.
So what say you? Have we finally reached the tipping point where enough full-paying Obamacare customers will simply forego insurance that they can no longer afford and cause the whole system to come crashing down?
Gotta love liblogic. If the growth rate during the first year of Trump matches the growth rate for the previous 4 years, then it must be Trump’s fault! Cuz we dont know what a growth rate is. We is too dumb to maths, but we knows Drumpfs is dumbz and its his fault.
Either way you pay for it. People are too simpleminded to understand that the government contribution comes from taxation.
Forcing people to purchase a product from private corporations is a fundamental human right.
Except that “you” only means people who pay taxes. So yeah, me, but not everyone.
Inusrance company subsidies, unlike tax breaks, actually are “corporate welfare” because they involve direct cash payments to insurance companies the same way other welfare programs provide direct payments to their recipients.
So now we’ll be hearing form people complaining about “corporate welfare” and obscene insurance company profits complaining about ending welfare for insurance companies and lamenting premium increases needed to keep them in business without it.
Of course, they won’t realize that is what they are doing and will somehow think things affecting themselves don’t count as those things they complain about.
When my insurance company threw in the towel back in 2014 (Assurant with Time as the underwriter) I said the hell with it. The next year the premium was $900 with a 10K deductible and the promise was for another 45% increase last year. I was long gone and using the short term catastrophic type policy. I am not paying for YOUR healthcare…….
But I imagine you expect someone to pay for yours if you run into serious problems.
No…..
I doubt you have enough money to pay a major bill yourself.
It’s actually easy to run up a million dollar bill from a common thing like an auto accident (I actually knew a young man who did that by hitting a deer and spending nearly a year in the hospital 20 or so years ago).
So if you don’t have insurance (which is the somebody else paying the bill you protested about), how you gonna handle it?
As Denninger notes (frequently), there is no true cost discovery in medicine today. They make up bills that charge whatever they want to charge – sometimes 10x multiples of what it costs the hospitals to acquire. They think they will come out even or ahead by charging patients with insurance to cover patients without insurance. This is going to lead to NO ONE having insurance, as it becomes unaffordable.
Reality is going to force a reset, the only question is how soon – this cannot continue as it is, unsupportable charges for unaffordable insurance coverage. How it ends – now that is a question.
Trump cancels $6b in subsidies and libs project $100b in premium increases. Riiight. These are the same people who threaten that if we don’t waste $15k/year for daycare (HeadStart), we’ll incur $1/2 mil in prison expenses.
It is pretty simple really. Trump is EXPOSING the racket for what it is through cost. By taking away the “subsidy” – read – corporate welfare payment, the real price of all of this racketeering is coming to the surface. As I am watching this debacle unfold, I would like to see premiums go up a 1000%. Why? Not because I want to see poor people die in the streets (liberal nonsense BTW). I want to see people WAKE THE FUCK UP to the scam, and realize that the ONLY reason why seeing a doctor, or going to the ER is not only a terrible experience from a service standpoint, but a financial raping, is because of CRONY government involvement. The more that this becomes unreasonable for the average slumbering Joe or Jane sixpack, the more they will push back in numbers, and maybe the system will finally collapse under its own bullshit. At that point, if we the people can keep the cronies out of it, the FREE MARKET will come up with the solution. So, keep up the pressure Trump, in fact he should be having press conferences highlighting how health “insurance” premiums could buy each American a vacation home….etc, just to show the absolute corruption and stupidity of the present system.
I literally canceled my health insurance today for 2018. First I was going to get hit with a “smokers tax” unless I went to some kind of “quit smoking school” (or some bullshit like that, I don’t really know because I ain’t quitting) I smoke cigars, usually on the weekends, but not always…………..this tax was going to cost me about $1,000 a year…….on top of that there were all sorts of hoops that I was going to have to jump through (mandatory “learning” to the tune of 8-11 programs/things I was going to have to do) to keep my premium from going up another $5,000!
My shitty health insurance, if I had simply kept all of my premiums and my co-pays the few times I did see the doctor this year I would be ahead by about $1,000. I know obamacare is going to cost me like $1,200 for NOT having insurance……they’ll have to catch me first.
I can’t decide who I hate more, fucking liars like Obeyma or assholes trying to tell me how to live my life by strangling (aka nudging me) with health insurance like the shitbags I work for………P.S. I work for a very famous non-profit…….they can go smoke a big fat aids dick (I hear it’s only a mister-meaner now) and die first if they want to keep me from smoking cigars, I’d call that an even trade.