As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act becomes entrenched, many of us will discover that it is neither, especially not affordable.
Case in point is the recent hike in insurance premiums by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut. The state insurance department recently approved premium increases greater than 20% for some of its insured policyholders, without an analysis or public hearing.
Justification of rate hikes was the reasoning that escalating medical costs and increased insured bases from the healthcare bill would be necessary. Eliminating the lifetime caps and insuring dependents for an additional 5 years has to be paid by someone after all- the someone being you.
Anthem’s increases range according to plan from .5 percent to 22.9 percent. Originally the company requested a 32% increase, which a public outcry shot down. This increase is occurring at a time when people are uninsured due to the cost (which was far less than current rate scales)
Various insurance companies across the country are formulating plans to follow in Anthem’s footsteps. To stem this cascade, Kathleen Sibelius, the HHS secretary issued a letter to the nation’s health insurance carriers in the form of a veiled threat. The companies must justify any premium increases in line with terms acceptable to the Democratic Party. In other words- play ball our way or go home. Those that do not satisfactorily comply will be totally barred from the government-managed insurance marketplace, which in the long term means going out of business.
So much for the promise that President Obama issued stating that insurance premiums would only go up 1-2%.
Sign me up for that one!
