Obamacare hit by premium hikes

‘It’s all over for Obama health plan’

WASHINGTON, Oct 25, (AP): Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That’s sure to stoke another “Obamacare” controversy days before a presidential election.

Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.

Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will have plans only from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles.

“Consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a tumultuous open enrollment period,” said Larry Levitt, who tracks the health care law for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Republicans pounced on the numbers as a warning that insurance markets created by the 2010 health overhaul are teetering toward a “death spiral.” Sign-up season starts Nov 1, about a week before national elections in which the GOP remains committed to a full repeal.

“It’s over for Obamacare,” Republican presidential candidate Donald

of its Manhattan campus.

On the Ivy League university’s 17 new acres in West Harlem, “there will be countless interactions with our neighbors in the surrounding communities, from educational Trump said at a campaign rally Monday evening in Tampa, Florida.

Trump said his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, “wants to double down and make it more expensive and it’s not gonna work . ... Our country can’t afford it, you can’t afford it.” He promised his own plan would deliver “great health care at a fraction of the cost.”

The new numbers aren’t too surprising, said Sen Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs a committee that oversees the law. It “does little to dispel the notion we are seeing the law implode at the expense of middle-class families.”

Reports

HHS essentially confirmed stateby-state reports that have been coming in for months. Window shopping for plans and premiums is already available through HealthCare.gov.

Administration officials are stressing that subsidies provided under the law, which are designed to rise alongside premiums, will insulate most customers from sticker shock. They add that consumers who are willing to switch to cheaper plans will still be able to find bargains.

“Headline rates are generally rising faster than in previous years,” acknowledged HHS spokesman Kevin Griffis. But he added that for most consumers, “headline rates are not what they pay.”

The vast majority of the more than 10 million customers who purchase through HealthCare.gov and its staterun

offerings to health centers to artistic engagements and beyond,” Columbia President Lee Bollinger told assembled faculty, Harlem residents and city officials.

The ceremony was staged in front of the counterparts do receive generous financial assistance. “Enrollment is concentrated among very low-income individuals who receive significant government subsidies to reduce premiums and cost-sharing,” said Caroline Pearson of the consulting firm Avalere Health.

But an estimated 5 million to 7 million people are either not eligible for the income-based assistance, or they buy individual policies outside of the health law’s markets, where the subsidies are not available. The administration is urging the latter group to check out HealthCare.gov. The spike in premiums generally does not affect the employer-provided plans that cover most workers and their families.

In some states, the premium increases are striking. In Arizona, unsubsidized premiums for a hypothetical 27-year-old buying a benchmark “second-lowest cost silver plan” will jump by 116 percent, from $196 to $422, according to the administration report.

But HHS said if that hypothetical consumer has a fairly modest income, making $25,000 a year, the subsidies would cover $280 of the new premium, and the consumer would pay $142. Caveat: if the consumer is making $30,000 or $40,000, his or her subsidy would be significantly lower. Dwindling choice is another issue. The total number of HealthCare.gov insurers will drop from 232 this year to 167 in 2017, a loss of 28 percent. (Insurers are counted multiple times if they offer coverage in more than one state.

Jerome L. Greene Science Center, the first building to be completed on the expanding campus. It marks Columbia’s visible victory in its court battles for the land, which came about half a dozen years after Bollinger first announced the project.

New York’s highest court ruled in 2010 that the state could seize some of the property under eminent domain after its chief economic development agency, the Empire State Development Corp., deemed the area blighted. The university bought the rest of the parcels from private owners. (AP)

Man convicted of killing Forrest:

A third man has been convicted of murder in the 2009 robbery and killing of ex-boxing champion Vernon Forrest in Atlanta.

News outlets report that a Fulton County jury is expected to decide Tuesday whether 38-year-old Charmon Sinkfield should receive the death penalty for shooting the former Olympian outside a gas station.

Forrest was killed in July 2009 as he chased Sinkfield’s accomplice Jquante Ware, who had robbed him of a championship ring and Rolex watch.

The Monday conviction follows the sentencing of Ware and Demario Crews, who have been serving life sentences since 2012 and 2009, respectively. Forrest was a member of the 1992 Olympic team along with Oscar De La Hoya. The fighter later won welterweight and junior middleweight titles and compiled a professional record of 41-3. (AP)