insurance prices for many obamacare customers will rise by double digits in 2017   




the cost of private health insurance arranged under president obama<u+2019>s health care law will rise by double-digit percentages and many americans will have only one insurer to choose from, the white house confirmed. 




the associated press reports : 




before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the department of health and human services. some states will see much bigger jumps, others less. 




moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will only have plans from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as unitedhealth group, humana and aetna scaled back their roles. 




<u+201c>consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a tumultuous open enrollment period,<u+201d> said larry levitt, who tracks the health care law for the nonpartisan kaiser family foundation. <u+2026> 




in some states, the premium increases are striking. in arizona, unsubsidized premiums for a hypothetical 27-year-old buying a benchmark <u+201c>second-lowest cost silver plan<u+201d> will jump by 116 percent, from $196 to $422, according to the administration report. 




but hhs said if that hypothetical consumer has a fairly modest income, making $25,000 a year, the subsidies would cover $280 of the new premium, and the consumer would pay $142. caveat: if the consumer is making $30,000 or $40,000 his or her subsidy would be significantly lower. 




the total number of insurers will drop from 232 this year to 167 in 2017, a loss of 28 percent. switching will be a burden for patients with chronic conditions or other complications. 




while many carriers are offering a choice of plan designs, most use a single prescription formulary and physician network across all their products, explained pearson. <u+201c>so, enrollees may need to change doctors or drugs when they switch insurers,<u+201d> she said. 




democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton has proposed <u+201c>an array of fixes, including sweetening the law<u+2019>s subsidies and allowing more people to qualify for financial assistance,<u+201d> ap reports. americans will deliver profits to insurance companies either way, as subsidy money comes from taxpayers and represents a loss of public services americans could otherwise provide themselves.
insurance prices for many obamacare customers will rise by double digits in 2017
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