Obamacare Hike

From USA Today:

"Rate hikes, new doctors: Obamacare exchange opens to angst"

As open enrollment starts Tuesday on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, consumers in some parts of the country are bracing for huge rate hikes, while many others are preparing to change insurers and likely doctors. The crazy quilt of 2017 changes is creating angst among both supporters of the law and consumers under 65 who don't get their insurance through work. And it comes as enrollment needs a big boost, especially of younger, healthier people to help offset insurers' costs of covering the sicker people who have signed up so far. "The way people are experiencing Obamacare varies tremendously across the country," says Larry Levitt, a senior vice president of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.  "In some states, the market is stable and in other places, it’s a bit of a mess."  For example, the second lowest cost silver plan — which federal subsidies are based upon — was up 116% in Arizona and down 3% in Indiana. In Indiana, four insurers left the exchange and four remain, while consumers in all but one Arizona county only have one insurer to buy from. Much of Southwest Florida, a region with uninsured rates above the national average, will have a single insurer from which they can select plans: Florida Blue. Nearly 93,000 residents of the Gulf Coast counties enrolled in exchange plans during the last enrollment period, according to government figures. About 80,000 of them live in counties with a single provider this time around.  Federal data out Monday also show, however, that there was no statistically significant difference between the number insured in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. Decisions by insurers including Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield to leave many states prompted insurance regulators to allow insurers to refile their rate requests, often more than once. That led eight states to approve rates that were often far higher than those originally proposed by insurers.

How 2017 is different:

• Shopping around more important than ever.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will match people whose insurers are leaving the exchanges to another plan, but consumers will only be officially enrolled if and when they pay their first month's premium.  For those whose insurer is still on the exchange, most who don’t return to Healthcare.gov by December 15 — the deadline for coverage that takes effect on January 1 — will be re-enrolled in their current plan. But shopping around saves money. CMS says if every returning consumer picked the cheapest plan in the same metal level as last year, their average premiums would drop by 20% a month over 2016.

• Rates are often way up. The tax credits more than 80% of people get to pay their premiums will generally keep up with the rate increases, shielding people below 400% of the federal poverty limit — about $97,000 a year for a family of four — from most of the pain. But the people who aren't eligible for tax credits will be especially hard hit.

• Tax penalties will be at their maximum.  Those who weren't insured in 2016 will have the highest penalties at tax time in April: $695 per adult or a maximum of $2,085 per family or 2.5% of adjusted gross income, whatever's higher. Some experts recommend that the penalty for remaining uninsured should be higher as it is often cheaper to remain uninsured than to pay the penalty.

In Indiana, more than 68,000 people find themselves starting anew on the marketplace after the departure of their insurers for this year. Four plans, including United Healthcare and IU Health, opted not to offer plans for 2017, leaving only four insurers on the exchange.

^ I saw this coming from the very beginning. Obamacare is going to be the main defining legacy of Obama and it's not something to be proud of. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/31/obamacare-exchanges-open-amid-fears-rates-effect-enrollment/92913140/