San Francisco Chronicle

Health care:

- By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar is an Associated Press writer.

Actions by the administra­tion are leading to double-digit premium increases on individual policies.

WASHINGTON — Actions by the Trump administra­tion are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to a nonpartisa­n study.

The analysis released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that mixed signals from President Trump have created uncertaint­y “far outside the norm” and led insurers to seek higher premium increases for 2018 than would otherwise have been the case.

Republican­s in Congress have not delivered on their promise to repeal and replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Trump is insisting that lawmakers try again and that the health overhaul is collapsing. At the same time, he’s threatened to stop billions of dollars in payments to insurers. Some Republican­s are considerin­g fallback measures to stabilize markets.

Kaiser researcher­s looked at proposed premiums for a benchmark silver plan across major metropolit­an areas in 20 states and Washington, D.C. Overall, they found that 15 of those cities will see increases of 10 percent or more next year.

The highest is a 49 percent jump in Wilmington, Del. The only decline: a 5 percent reduction in Providence, R.I.

About 10 million people who buy policies through HealthCare.gov and state-run markets are potentiall­y affected, as are 5 million to 7 million more who purchase individual policies on their own.

Those in the government­sponsored markets can dodge the hit with the help of tax credits that most of them qualify for to help pay premiums.

But off-marketplac­e customers pay full freight, and they face a second consecutiv­e year of steep increases. Many are self-employed business owners.

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