Some Obamacare Health Plans in New York Request Double-Digit Increases

The
state of New York was one of Obamacare’s clearest winners: In the
years prior to the enactment of the federal health law, the state
had all but
ruined its individual insurance market with a handful of strict
regulations that caused premiums to skyrocket and enrollment in
individual insurance plans to dwindle to a fraction of what was
normal. So when Obamacare arrived, it helped bring individual
market premiums down. 

But how long will that last? Some customers are already
experiencing “sticker shock” regarding next year’s rate increases,

according to The New York Times: 

Some New Yorkers are in sticker shock after receiving notices
from their insurance companies saying that they have asked for
significant rate increases through the state’s health exchange next
year.

The exchange, which has prided
itself on being affordable, is now facing requests for
increases as high as 28 percent for some customers of MetroPlus, a
new entry to the individual insurance market and one of the least
costly — and most popular — plans on the exchange this year.

Beth Leibson, a Manhattan resident, received a letter from
MetroPlus saying it was working on raising her rate by 28 percent.
She said this was a higher one-year increase than any rate rise she
had had with previous insurance, including insurance under the
federal law known as Cobra, where she paid the entire bill. “It
seems to me that this defeats the purpose of ‘affordable’ health
insurance,” Ms. Leibson said.

Over all, including plans inside or outside the exchange,
insurance companies asked for average
rate increases of 13 percent in 2015, the state’s
Financial Services Department said Wednesday. The requests cover
individual and small-group plans, but not large-group plans like
those offered by large companies and government employers.

These rate increases don’t factor in subsidies, and it’s
possible that they will be reduced before going into effect. And
some smaller insurers aren’t asking for hikes quite as large. But

according to the New York Post, the bigger health
plans are asking for larger hikes. Which makes a certain sort of
sense: They already have a built in customer base, and now can
proceed with ratcheting up rates, while smaller competitors may be
looking to draw in customers.