Premium Rate Shock

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/12/premium-rate-shock

From Bloomberg News, via the Washington Examiner:

Health insurance premiums may as much as double for some small businesses and individual buyers in the U.S. when the Affordable Care Act's major provisions start in 2014, Aetna Inc.'s chief executive officer said.

While subsidies in the law will shield some people, other consumers who make too much for assistance are in for "premium rate shock," Mark Bertolini, who runs the third-biggest U.S. health-insurance company, told analysts yesterday at a conference in New York...."We're going to see some markets go up as much as as 100 percent."

Lovely. This is another way that income is redistributed outside the tax code (college financial aid is another). President Obama has been asking for the rich to "pay a little more" through higher tax rates. But if their health insurance costs double but they don't qualify for the ObamaCare subsidies because they earn too much money the effect is similar.

Aetna is the firm about which President Obama said in 2009, "Aetna is a well-managed company and I am confident that your shareholders are going to do well."

by Editor  |  Dec 14, 2012 at 10:24 am Related Topics:  Health Care receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list