Hawaii insurers seek Obamacare hike
The Hawaii Medical Service Association is seeking to boost health insurance rates next year by an average 27.1 percent, while Kaiser Permanente is proposing a 19.9 percent rate hike, together affecting nearly 33,000 residents covered by the federal Affordable Care Act.
The state’s largest health insurers filed the proposed rates with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees policies under the ACA, or Obamacare.
The health insurance companies appear to blame policies of both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump for the proposed rate increases. People insured through Obamacare have had higher medical expenses than expected, and that has caused premiums to go up each year since the program began. Under Trump the insurance companies stand to lose a federal subsidy that helped keep the premium increases lower.
Republicans last week failed to repeal Obama’s health care law, which requires most Americans to purchase insurance or face tax penalties. Continuation of the law leaves insurance companies with the same problem of covering the high cost of the newly insured population.
Read more: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/08/02/hawaii-news/hawaii-insurers-seek-obamacare-hike/?HSA=a6bb532c0bcb6e9887013163802415e2a1419a4f
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