While Californians covered by plans in their state-run health insurance exchange are celebrating news that their premiums will only increase by an average of 4 percent next year, North Carolinians enrolled in their own federally-run exchange are not so lucky.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced that it plans to raise premiums for its enrollees by 35 percent next year. The insurance giant had already signaled in June that it wanted to increase rates by 26 percent—twice the allowable rate for this year—but has since upped its estimated increase.
Blue Cross vice president Patrick Getzen told the Associated Press that the increase is necessary largely because the plan had failed to attract as many young people as it needed to spread costs across its insurance pool. Expectations that more healthy people would enroll in the plans during the second year of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have not proven true, he said.
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"Our claims and expenses are higher than our premiums and we need to take steps now to protect the sustainability of plans for our customer over the long-term," Getzen said.
It is not clear whether the projected rate increase will stand. President Obama and officials in charge of the implementation of the PPACA have urged state insurance commissioners to scrutinize proposed premium increases from insurers and to put pressure on them to keep rates down.
Nationally, most consumers will not experience dramatic premium hikes next year, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The report predicted that those who are on low-cost plans, for instance, will face average increases of 4.4 percent.
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