EDITORIAL: Another Obamacare rate shock

June 20--Buckle up, all you Illinoisans who depend on Obamacare health coverage. Wednesday is the deadline for rate request proposals from insurers.

Customers can expect hefty premium hikes for next year's policies.

Yes, again. It'll be this way until this faltering law gets fixed or replaced.

For 2017, you may recall, Illinois rates leaped by more than 40 percent. For 2018, we'll see.

We don't yet have preliminary increases for 2018 policies because Illinois typically -- and infuriatingly -- doesn't release rates until later in the summer. But large Obamacare insurers in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland seek average increases greater than 30 percent for next year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Market leaders in Oregon, North Carolina and Maine propose increases of about 20 percent or more.

Nationally, more than 4 in 10 insurers estimate that their rates will rise 20 percent or more, according to a survey by consulting firm Oliver Wyman Health. Another 36 percent peg the rise between 10 and 20 percent. The rest plan on smaller increases.

Why the shocking hikes? Major reasons include:

--Insurers still struggle to sign up enough healthy (low-cost) people to offset the higher costs of sicker policy holders. Even the individual mandate that Americans buy coverage or pay a penalty didn't convince many healthy Americans that Obamacare policies with government-mandated benefits were a good value for their money. Think about that: The current system isn't just expensive, for millions of people it's also so unattractive that they'd rather go without health coverage.

--Uncertainty. Insurers hate it. "... U.S. health insurers are approaching 2018 with a plan A and a plan B and they are seeking clarity around key policy issues," the Wyman report says.

One driver of that uncertainty: President Donald Trump.

He has threatened to end government-provided cost-sharing subsidies that help millions afford insurance. If he does, rates rise and many of those people won't be able to afford insurance. And more insurers bail: More than 4 in 10 insurers in the Wyman survey said they'd likely abandon the market if the payments stopped. The others said they'd re-file proposed rates, presumably raising them to cover the loss of those government payments. Lose-lose for consumers.

Instead of swiftly resolving this issue, the administration has continued the payments temporarily. Administration officials also asked a federal appeals court to delay a ruling on the legality of those subsidy payments. All of that suggests that the White House doesn't want a court to kill the subsidies and isn't planning to do so itself. But the lack of finality also prolongs the suspense for insurers and customers.

That creates more unpredictability for insurers. Result: Many Americans may be priced out of the market or may find dwindling or no carriers willing to offer policies in their counties.

If the administration continues to dither, Congress could -- and should -- step in to provide enough money to shore up markets while lawmakers attempt to pass an Obamacare replacement. There's one under construction by Republicans in the Senate and expected to come to a vote. Democrats, meanwhile, continue to pretend that their 2010 law will work.

Huge proposed premium increases for 2018 demonstrate the hollowness of that hope. Obamacare won't heal itself.

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