EDITORIAL: Uncertainty, not the Affordable Care Act, is driving up insurance rates
They are doing so because there is too much uncertainty surrounding the health insurance market right now. Call it death of a 1,000 details negotiated in secret.
To be sure, there are problems with the Affordable Care Act. For example, too many healthy people decided it was better to pay the penalty rather than buy health insurance, leaving the individual market unbalanced with too many sick and older people, who have more insurance claims.
This reality already caused premiums to rise in many markets and insurance carriers have left other unprofitable markets.
Rather than fix the problems in the Affordable Care Act, which critics call Obamacare, Trump and Republican leaders in
A bill passed by
A
Meanwhile, insurance companies need to set prices and policies for next year. If the Affordable Care Act is significantly changed, rates could rise by more than a third, the
"Information provided by insurers shows the extent to which instability and changes would impact
If the individual mandate is repealed,
Miller and other insurance commissioners cite the uncertainty surrounding the Affordable Care Act -- not the law itself -- as the reason for these large increases.
"The uncertainty is extremely problematic,"
All three companies that participate in the Affordable Care Act in
Harvard Pilgrim is seeking the largest increase -- nearly 40 percent, on average.
The answer to this problem is not to weaken the important consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act or to further raise costs for skimpier health insurance policies for average Americans, while giving tax breaks that have nothing to do with health care to the wealthy.
The solution, long ignored by Republican leaders in
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