{"id":15966,"date":"2016-06-04T11:30:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=15966"},"modified":"2016-06-04T11:30:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T16:30:17","slug":"texas-news-blue-cross-announces-60-rate-hike-due-to-obama-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/04\/texas-news-blue-cross-announces-60-rate-hike-due-to-obama-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas News: Blue Cross Announces 60% Rate Hike Due to Obama-Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Socialism at it&#8217;s finest folks.-SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15967\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/heath_overhaul_texas_50857187.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"FILE In this Feb. 12, 2015 file photo, Affordable Care Act navigators hold an enrollment event at the Fort Worth Public Library in Fort Worth, Texas. Fresh problems for \u0093Obamacare.\u0094 The largest health insurer in Texas wants to raise its rates on individual policies an average of nearly 60 percent, a sign that President Barack Obama\u0092s overhaul didn\u0092t solve the problem of price spikes.  (AP Photo\/LM Otero, File)\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 The largest health insurer in Texas wants to raise its rates on individual policies by an average of nearly 60 percent, a new sign that President Barack Obama\u2019s overhaul hasn\u2019t solved the problem of price spikes.<\/p>\n<p>Texas isn\u2019t alone. Citing financial losses under the health care law, many insurers around the country are requesting bigger premium increases for 2017. That\u2019s to account for lower-than-hoped enrollment, sicker-than-expected customers and problems with the government\u2019s financial backstop for insurance markets.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas has about 603,000 individual policyholders and, unlike other insurers in the state, offers coverage in every county. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/ratereview.healthcare.gov\/\">recent filing<\/a> with federal regulators, the company said it is seeking increases averaging from 57.3 percent to 59.4 percent across its individual market plans.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas said its request is based on strong financial principles, science and data. \u201cIt\u2019s also important to understand the magnitude of the losses \u2026 experienced in the individual retail market over the past two years,\u201d the statement said. The company says it lost $592 million last year and $416 million in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The national picture will take weeks to fill in. With data available for about half the states, premium increases appear to be sharper, but there are also huge differences between states and among insurers. Health insurance is priced locally.<\/p>\n<p>A recent analysis of nine states by the consulting firm Avalere Health found that average premium increases for the most popular kind of plan ranged from 5 percent in Washington state to 44 percent in Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>Read the Remainder at<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com\/2016\/06\/blue-cross-asking-for-60-percent-rate-hike-for-obamacare-plans-in-texas-in-2017.html\/\">Dallas Morning News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Socialism at it&#8217;s finest folks.-SF WASHINGTON \u2014 The largest health insurer in Texas wants to raise its rates on individual policies by an average of nearly 60 percent, a new sign that President Barack Obama\u2019s overhaul hasn\u2019t solved the problem of price spikes. Texas isn\u2019t alone. Citing financial losses under the health care law, many&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3958,74,4048,3553,5589],"tags":[12063,12064,12065],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}