State says Obamacare will force 72 percent increase in individual insurance plan rates [The Indianapolis Star]

July 19--Insurance rates in Indiana will increase 72 percent for those with individual plans and 8 percent for small group plans under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, according to the state's insurance department.

The spike in costs is due primarily to new mandates under the law, which requires insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions and to offer a minimum level of benefits, said Logan Harrison, chief deputy commissioner with the Indiana Department of Insurance under Republican Gov. Mike Pence. New taxes and fees under the law also contributed, Harrison said.

"This new data regrettably confirms the negative impact of the Affordable Care Act on the insurance market in Indiana," he said. "The Affordable Care Act requires many Hoosiers to purchase more comprehensive and more expensive health insurance than they may want or need. These rates call into question just how affordable health insurance will really be for many Hoosiers."

Costs for individual plans is expected to increase from an average of $255 per member per month in 2012 to $570 in 2014, when the most aspects of the law go into effect.

The increased costs of individual plans will only impact the people buy insurance on their own, about 200,000 people right now, Harrison said. Most Hoosiers -- about 70 percent -- get their insurance through their employers.

The insurance department's figures don't take into account federal subsidies that many people will receive on the new health insurance exchanges for individuals. Those who earn 100 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level will be eligible for subsidies.

A family of four with a household income of $80,000, for example, would receive a tax credit of about $2,269 to help cover the cost of individual insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Harrison said the insurance department looked at the raw rate increases because Hoosiers will pay for them whether through tax dollars or directly from their own pockets.

Other states, such as New York and California, have recently announced that individual rates will be less expensive under the law.

Harrison said some of those states already have requirements similar to or even more stringent than those in the federal law.

"This is a great example of the shortcomings of the federal, one-size-fits-all approach," he said.

Under the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, an additional 100,000 Hoosiers are expected to obtain individual health insurance plans, including about 7,500 Hoosiers who can't insurance now because of high-risk health conditions, Harrison said.

Republicans, including Pence, continue to rail against President Obama's healthcare overhaul. In the face of ongoing criticism, the president held a speech at the White House on Thursday to tout how a provision in his signature health care law is forcing health insurance providers to return money to consumers.

With his administration facing deadlines to establish health care exchanges in all 50 states by Oct. 1 and GOP lawmakers continuing to call for a repeal of the law, the president is looking to trumpet the law by highlighting one of the most tangible ways Americans are benefiting from it even as his administration struggles to fully implement it.

Obama honed in on what is known as the medical loss ratio provision of the health care law in his speech. The provision requires insurers to refund customers when they spend less than 80 percent of premiums they collect on medical care.

This year the provision will result in 8.5 million Americans receiving $500 million in rebates later this summer, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency estimates that the average rebate is about $100 per family.

The speech by the president follows the Obama administration's announcement earlier this month that it would delay until 2015 the requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees provide health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty. And the GOP-led House approved the latest in more than three dozen votes on Wednesday to gut the health care law. The Republican efforts, which don't have support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have been dismissed by the White House as political grandstanding.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney also noted that some states, including New York, California and Oregon, already are projecting lower premiums because of health insurance exchanges that are being set up under the law.

But Republican lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, counter that their constituents are seeing rates skyrocket and premium increases would dwarf the rebates.

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