I thought ObamaCare was supposed to prevent this.
Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections.
Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.
These and other insurers say Congress’s landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted.
The rate increases largely apply to policies for individuals and small businesses and don’t include people covered by a big employer or Medicare.
About 9% of Americans buy coverage through the individual market, according to the Census Bureau, and roughly one-fifth of people who get coverage through their employer work at companies with 50 or fewer employees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. People in both groups are likely to feel the effects of the proposed increases, even as they see new benefits under the law, such as the elimination of lifetime and certain annual coverage caps.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703720004575478200948908976.html
More thuggery from the Obama regime.
……Faced with the fact that the new health-care law was driving up insurance premiums, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that the administration would have “zero tolerance” for anyone who blamed them for those price hikes.
Insurance companies that persist in telling the truth could face dire consequences. “We will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes . . . on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections,” she wrote in a letter to the insurance industries’ trade association.
At the very least, she noted “bad actors” could be excluded from new government-run health-insurance exchanges that will begin operation in 2014 under the law. That could cost insurers as many as 30 million customers nationwide. People also might not be able to use government subsidies to buy insurance from companies that don’t toe the administration line. What’s next? Only companies that write checks to the Democratic National Committee can participate? Have too many employees contribute to the wrong candidate, and you get a visit from the insurance commissioner?
Well, at the risk of sleeping with the fishes, let’s be clear about what ObamaCare means for insurance costs. The new health-care law requires insurers to provide coverage even for people who are already sick and forbids them from charging sick people higher premiums than healthy people. It requires all insurance plans to include a host of added benefits and prohibits insurers from capping how much they pay out over a year or a lifetime.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obamacare_extortion_iQ5A2V2Nu2NoaBKQq2m9xK
First you violate the Constitution by creating federal commerce and forcing citizens to buy into it, then you blame the consequences on the very people you coerced, and villify them for calling you on it. It’s the Chicago Way.
Welcome to Obamanation.
Related post: