Thursday, July 03, 2014

NY Obamacare Premiums Set for Double-Digit Rise; What about Oregon's?

From the New York Post:
Insurance firms participating in New York’s ObamaCare health exchange are seeking double-digit hikes for patient medical premiums in 2015, new figures reviewed by The Post reveal.
The average hike sought by insurers for individual plans is 12 percent—but a number of firms serving large numbers of patients want to boost individual premiums by nearly 20 percent.
What about the requests now going to the Oregon Insurance Division?

It looks like Moda (which now covers more than 40% of Oregon's individual market) is also asking for double-digit hikes: an 11-13% raise in the Portland area for the three categories listed (21 year olds; 40 year olds; and 60 year olds). Moda's small group increase proposals are in the 8-11% range. Below is the chart for individual 21 year old coverage.


As the New York Post notes:
The proposed rate increases call into question one of the goals of the Affordable Care Act — curbing runaway health-care costs.
Indeed. Weren't savings supposed to be something like $2,500 per family?

H/T Byron York

4 comments:

MAX Redline said...

It's worth remembering that NY was crowing, early on, about the tremendous savings they were showing; their premiums were actually lower, in many cases, than we saw here in Orygun. Even I knew that was a one-time political move.

But come November, when some 80,000 who managed to enroll (eventually) under Cover Oregon are forced to re-enroll on the federal exchange, things are going to get even better - because Cover Oregon's own metrics indicate that the transition to the federal exchange has a "high risk of failure".

So it's likely to be the same thing all over again, and more people will be left out. Those who do obtain insurance will likely, once again, have to do so on the open market at very high cost.

T. D. said...

Yes, it was NY that was touting its big savings. And wait until the Feds no longer are underwriting the insurance companies on their losses. But, that will be down the line and you won't find the New York Times bringing up the $2,500 savings then as they are not doing now.

As for Cover Oregon, it was a complete disaster. I agree with you that the Feds were and will still be a disaster, just not to the extent Cover Oregon was. Not good news for anyone needing to get health coverage through the "exchanges".

It's only bound to get worse as work coverage gets dumped in.

MAX Redline said...

Hey, I meant to ask: why is the rate chart for "Age 21"? Do they not know that those kids don't actually have to buy insurance until they hit age 27?

And what a deal: let 'em vote at 18 for people whose policies won't affect them for nearly ten years!

T. D. said...

Good points, Max. I hadn't thought of the 21 year old non sequitur.