Blue Cross Blue Shield seeks 60% rate hikes in 2017 in Texas
Once again the limits of Obamacare are exposed. Health insurance - even forced health insurance - won't ever work for universal health care.
"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest insurer, has asked for rate hikes of nearly 60 percent for next year in three popular HMO plans, filings with federal regulators show."
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Blue-Cross-Blue-Shield-seeks-60-rate-hikes-in-7958152.php
This - like United Health's pullout - will probably leave areas with one option - and the price gouging that that implies.
"The entire states of Alaska and Alabama are expected to have only one insurer on the health law’s signature online marketplaces next year, according to state regulators. The same is expected to be true in parts of several other states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma, state regulators said.
So far, more than 650 counties appear on track to have just one insurer on the exchanges in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is tracking withdrawals as they become public. That would be up from 225 in 2016, when the state of Wyoming, among other areas, already had just one ACA marketplace competitor. Of the counties in jeopardy of having only a single exchange insurer next year, 70% have populations that are mostly rural, said Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the foundation."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/insurance-options-dwindle-in-some-rural-regions-1463356031
If only some candidate had a good alternative... [cough]
= new reply since forum marked as read
like that.
