Obamacare nightmare spreads to Iowa as insurer seeks 57 percent rate increase
Published in
Blog
on
December 05, 2017
by
Convention of States Project
In one of the biggest 2018 premium hikes sought to date, Iowa’s only ObamaCare insurer is looking for a 57 percent rate increase – that’s 13 percent more than they asked for just two months earlier.
It’s a troubling trend that’s been spreading across the country as jittery insurers stay stuck in a holding pattern waiting on Congress and the Trump administration to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act.
President Trump has at different times encouraged lawmakers to let ObamaCare implode, pushed his party to repeal and replace the bill, admonished his own party for failing to do so and supported a repeal-only bill.
One of the president's biggest complaints about the ACA has been the trend of rising premiums in the insurance exchanges. But insurers have only accelerated that push in the face of Trump threats to cut off billions in federal funding meant to keep co-pays and deductibles down, coupled with congressional deadlock and market uncertainty over the repeal of ObamaCare.
In June, Iowa's Medica sent a letter to its customers explaining it was seeking a 43.5 percent rate hike, affecting about 14,000 Iowans. The company spelled out the steep premium increases but offered customers assurances that federal subsidies would shield most them from forking over thousands more a year.
Since then, however, Medica has revised the proposed hike to 57 percent – citing once again uncertainties over federal health care subsidies.
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