The costs of Trump's sabotage of Obamacare already are showing up in rate hikes

[dalton99a]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-sabotage-20170516-story.html

The costs of Trump's sabotage of Obamacare already are showing up in rate hikes
Michael Hiltzik
May 16, 2017

The easiest prediction to make about the healthcare business was that the efforts by Congress and the Trump Administration to sabotage the Affordable Care Act would produce a flood of rate hikes by insurers for 2018.

We are now standing on the edge of the water. Early rate requests have come in from insurers in five states, according to ace ACA-tracker Charles Gaba, who calculates the weighted average rate request increase in those states at about 30% (that is, weighted for the enrollment of each insurer).

Many are blaming the doubt and confusion sown by Congress and the White House for one-third or more of their requested increases over 2017 rates.

“Uncertainty is already clearly leading to significantly higher rate hike requests than would otherwise be asked for,” Gaba observes.

[NCjack]

1. Perhaps "repeal and run" is happening ahead of schedule. nt