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The cost of expanding Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is rising faster than expected in many states, causing budget anxieties and political misgivings. Far more people than projected are signing up under the new, more relaxed eligibility requirements, and their health care costs are running higher than anticipated, in part because the new enrollees are apparently sicker than expected. Rising drug prices may also be a factor. As a result, at least three expansion states, Arkansas, Kentucky and Ohio, have been pushing to require Medicaid recipients to pay more toward their health insurance - a step that...

Health Reform: This week Illinois' insurance regulator said ObamaCare premiums in the state will jump as high as 55%. The Obama administration's response to this and other news of massive rate hikes: Don't worry. Be happy. Anyone shopping for ObamaCare coverage in Illinois this fall is in for a big shock. The average increase for cheap Bronze plans is likely 44%. It's 45% for the lowest-cost Silver plan, and 55% for the cheapest Gold plan.

Dear John: I make approximately $25,000 a year before taxes and I make another $10,000 from rental income. My mortgage is $2,100 a month. I got ObamaCare coverage last year, and I paid approximately $230 a month with some subsidies from New York state.

If you rely on health insurance provided by companies aligned with the Affordable Care Act marketplace in Pennsylvania, prepare yourself for sticker shock when it’s time to pay those premiums in the fall. Valley residents enrolled in the ACA marketplace can choose from programs offered by Capital Advantage, Geisinger, Highmark, UPMC Health Options, Geisinger Health Plan, Geisinger Quality Options, and Keystone Health Plan Central. All are proposing significant rate increases for monthly premiums in 2017.

When Obamacare’s fourth open enrollment period begins on November 1, many customers will face fewer insurance options and much higher prices. “Only the sick people sign up. And that’s why the premiums are going up, up, up,” said Obamacare critic Betsy McCaughey, who is the former Lt. Gov. of New York. Premiums will go up by double digits, she predicted — “20 percent for the biggest plans in New York, 40 percent in Tennessee, and somewhere in between around the country.” …

Double-digit Obamacare premium hikes projected in 2017 may bode in Donald Trump’s favor, as several swing states are being impacted by double-digit increases under the law and consumers are expected to see the hikes around Nov. 1 — one week before heading to the polls. Trump has promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but Hillary Clinton has vowed to make the Obamacare exchanges work. Some say the way she would do that is through raising taxes.

After the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2010, it created a review mechanism intended to prevent exorbitant increases in health insurance rates by shaming companies that sought them. But this summer, insurers are turning that process on its head, using it to highlight the reasons they are losing money under the health care law and their case for raising premiums in 2017. That has ignited an election-year fight between insurers and consumers, who are complaining bitterly about the double-digit increases being sought across the country. The conflicts have been on vivid display at hearings in states like Pennsylvania, where...

Gigantic losses put exchanges on the brink, send program careening into chaos Remember when everyone watching ObamaCare was focused on how many people had signed up? First they needed 7 million, then 11 million, and on it went as new targets replaced the old. These weren’t meaningless - at least it didn’t appear that way. The targets represented the critical mass the Obama Administration itself said the program needed to be economically sustainable. Insurance, they told us, is about risk pools. If you’ve got enough people in the risk pool, you’d have enough premiums being paid in to cover those...

CHICAGO--Health insurance premiums for Illinois residents who buy coverage through the Affordable Care Act's marketplace could increase by as much as 45 percent according to proposals submitted by insurers and made public Monday. The leading insurer on Illinois' exchange, Blue Cross Blue Shield, is proposing increases for 2017 ranging from 23 percent to 45 percent for individual health care plans, according to proposals posted by Heathcare.gov. Another insurer, Coventry Health Care of Illinois, proposed rate increases as high as 21 percent. Harken Health Insurance Company has proposed a nearly 29 percent hike in individual premiums and Health Alliance Medical Plans...

I've just been notified by my long-term health care insurance program that they're increasing my monthly premium from $198 to $441 beginning in November due to "the severity of certain medical conditions, expected lifespans, returns on investment, and overall program expenses." The insurer is John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company. I'll have to pay the full premium increase in order to keep my annual 5% benefit increase. Or I can pay "only" $318 per month and drop to a 3.9% annual benefit increase. Or I can retain the current premium and drop to a 2% annual benefit increase.

The big rate increases announced last week for health insurance policies sold by California’s version of the federal health reform are the latest evidence that the Affordable Care Act, despite its name, cannot do much to tame the rise of health care costs.

Big health plans stung by losses in the first few years of the U.S. health law’s implementation are seeking hefty premium increases for individual plans sold through insurance exchanges in more than a dozen states. The insurers’ proposed rates for individual coverage in states that have made their 2017 requests public largely bear out health plans’ grim predictions about their challenges under the health-care overhaul. According to the insurers’ filings with regulators, large plans in states including New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia are seeking to raise rates by 20% or more. In states such as Florida and Maryland, insurers are...

The Department of Health and Human Services insists that the Affordable Care Act not only expanded health insurance to many more Americans, but it also "made everyone's insurance better." But some Republicans are asking, what good is the health insurance if sky-high deductibles mean you never get to use it? The Democrats' Affordable Care Act is a mandate -- "not to get care, but to get coverage," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Tuesday. "And many people are finding the coverage is not at all of value to them because they can't get care. Either...their doctors don't take Obamacare or...

Insurers on the New York health exchange are requesting rate hikes averaging in excess of 17%, with UnitedHealthcare going as high as a whopping 45.6%. UnitedHealthcare has already announced that they would exit most of the Affordable Care Act state exchanges in which they operate in 2017, New York being one of the few exceptions. The biggest health insurer in the country announced that it lost $475 million on the ACA exchanges last year and could lose another $500 million this year. They explained that states in which they would continue to serve – like New York – would be...

Reports continue to flow in of big ObamaCare premium spikes that will hit exchanges around the country in 2017. Insurers are seeking an average 27% rate hike in Oregon; 21% in Maine; 18% in Virginia; and 18% in Florida. But if the premiums don’t shock you, the deductibles very well might. Not only are bronze deductibles rising as high as $7,150 in 2017, from a maximum of $6,850 this year, but silver deductibles of $6,000 or more are becoming commonplace. In fact, Centene (CNC), one of the most aggressive exchange competitors when it comes to pricing, is planning to roll...

After raising its premiums for coverage on the Obamacare exchange by 36.3 percent for 2016, the state's dominant health insurer is heralding another increase of the "same order of magnitude" for 2017. BlueCross BlueShield claims it lost more than $150 million in 2015 when its rates were among the lowest in the land. But the 36.3 percent increase for 2016, the largest of any state, brings Tennessee rates to just about the national average. So how on Earth can costs be going up so exponentially to justify such a rate increase on the part of a nonprofit insurance company whose...

Humana wasn't kidding when it hinted last week of big premium hikes for 2017 in those ObamaCare markets where it remains. This year, the nation's fifth-largest insurer offers the cheapest bronze and silver plans in Michigan's largest market, including Detroit. But Humana has filed for a 50% premium hike for its low-cost silver plan. Meanwhile, Humana wants a 38% premium increase for its lowest-cost bronze plan. So far only Oregon, where insurers are requesting an average 27% premium hike, and Virginia, where insurers want an 18% hike, are the only two states to make all rate filings available.

Insurers -- who might not be allowed the huge rate increases they need to stay solvent --- are looking to save money by eliminating so-called Bronze-level plans. Fierce Health Player reports on an Inside Health Policy (subscription only) warning from earlier this week: One problem, according to the article, is risk adjustment--as CMS data indicate bronze is the only metal level for which insurers of all sizes in the individual and group markets had to pay into the program. Federal officials are considering some changes to the risk adjustment program, which some say unfairly penalizes smaller insurers. Already, filings show...

It's still early days for the Affordable Care Act. But it may be dismaying to some consumers to learn that it appears 2017 may bring another year of big rate hikes. The first two states to release insurers' premium proposals for next year suggest that individual insurance premiums could rise by as much as one-third. In Oregon, the steepest requested rate hike is 32.3 percent. In Virginia, five of the biggest insurers are asking for increases of 9.4 percent to 37.1 percent for individual policies. The proposed rate hikes follow an average increase of 8 percent for 2016, and are...

The last thing Democrats want to contend with just a week before the 2016 presidential election is an outcry over double-digit insurance hikes as millions of Americans begin signing up for Obamacare. But that looks increasingly likely as health plans socked by Obamacare losses look to regain their financial footing by raising rates. Just a week after the nation’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth Group, pulled out of most Obamacare exchanges because it anticipates $650 million in losses this year, Aetna’s CEO said Thursday that his company expects to break even, but legislative fixes are needed to make the marketplace sustainable. “I...