The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report out suggesting that Obamacare premiums are going to skyrocket next year. Maybe so. But before everyone gets into another Trump-inspired tizzy about this, please note the highlighted section of the Kaiser table below:
Insurers always ask for more than they get. In the 13 states that Kaiser examines, insurers have asked for rate increases averaging 11 percent. And who knows? Maybe they’ll get it. More than likely, though, they won’t. This is an opening bid, and the final contract won’t be set for several more months.
So, as usual, take this with a grain of salt. The truth is that Obamacare premiums started out lower than most analysts predicted, because (a) insurers turned out to be really interested in lowballing their prices in order to gain market share, and (b) they didn’t have much data to base their rates on. As the market shakes out, real-world data will become more available and market shares will start to settle down. It’s possible that this will drive a couple of years of semi-large-ish premium increases, but that’s about it. And maybe not even that much.
So don’t panic. We don’t know yet if premiums are really going up 11 percent. But even if they are, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise. The real test will be how the original Obamacare projections compare to real-life premiums in, say, 2019. My guess is that they’ll be fairly close. More here from Charles Gaba, who basically says we just don’t know yet what will happen in 2017.
