This week saw more bad news for ObamaCare. So the Obama administration slipped on the brass knuckles.
Last week brought news that health insurance premiums grew by a smaller increment in 2010 than in any of the past 10 years. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that ObamaCare appears to be turning that around:
Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.
The Journal even included this handy chart, where the blue bars show how much ObamaCare will add to the cost of certain health plans in 2011.
Source: Wall Street Journal[/caption]
In addition, a Mercer survey of employers found that 79 percent expect they will lose their “grandfathered” status by 2014, and therefore will become subject to many more of ObamaCare’s new mandates—a much higher figure than the administration had estimated. Employers expect those additional mandates will increase premiums by 2.3 percent, on average, and boost the overall growth of premiums from 3.6 percent to 5.9 percent in 2011.