Although the annual scenario begins to sound like a broken record – perhaps something hideous by Milli Vanilli – it is important to again note the rate increases insurance companies must ask for to pay for the health care coverage they offer through the federally run Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Their goal, of course, would be to get to even for the year – to have the insured pay premiums that would equal what they dole out for services to doctors and hospitals. But in doing so, they must determine what they can charge subscribers to keep their business.
Figuring it out is no easy feat, as insurance companies are happy to tell you. And they also admit they haven’t come close in the first four years of the ACA exchanges.
Six years of smoke and mirrors after the Affordable Care Act was signed, President Barack Obama’s promises of lower premiums, the ability the keep your plan if you like it and the ability to keep your doctor if you choose should never be forgotten.
Lower premiums never happened for the great majority of insured Americans (and if they did, they were short-lived), many insurance plans have gone by the board and a large number of patients were not able to keep their doctor.