Ken Berwitz
Obamacare premiumcosts will soar 20.3 percent on average in 2016 instead of the 7.5 percentincrease claimed by federal officials, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The discrepancy isbecause the government excluded price data for three of the four Obamacarehealth insurance plans when the officials issued their recent forecast claiming enrollees wouldface only a 7.5 percent average rate increase in 2016.
Officials in the U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services Center for Medicare Services, which manages Obamacare, onlycalculated price changes for the health insurance program’s Silver plan, thusignoring data for the Bronze, Gold and Platinum plans.
The CMS officials saidthey did so because the IRS uses the Silver plan as a “benchmark” for taxpurposes. That approach, however, gave consumers an incomplete picture of whatis happening in the health insurance marketplace through the Obamacare program.
The DCNF analysisreviewed price data for all four plans obtained from CMS, insurance companies,state insurance regulators and the nonpartisan National Conference of StateLegislatures.
The 20.3 percentfigure is the average for all plans. Premium increases in some states will bemuch higher. In Utah, for example, some enrollees in an individual plan willface a 45 percent price jump. In Illinois, the highest price hikes forindividuals in the federal exchange will be 42.4 percent. Some insurers inTennessee will experience a 36.3 percent price rise.
