Citing rate increases as high as 198 percent, Georgia has requested an emergency delay in the implementation of health care exchanges, the Savannah Morning News reported Wednesday.
According to the publication, Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens asked U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for another 30 days beyond Thursday's deadline to approve the plans submitted by seven insurance companies wanting to do business in the state.
Some of the rates quoted by the companies were 198 percent higher than current plans, he said.
“Georgia consumers cannot afford these massive rate increases,” he wrote in his letter to Sebelius.
Hudgens said that Georgia’s “file and use” law for health insurance only empowers him to deny premiums that are excessive, the Morning News said. With the report of outside actuaries hired to review the premiums of seven companies in hand, he has no grounds to find them excessive unless Sebelius gives it to him.
That report said six of the companies sought justifiable premiums, but the seventh was 11 percent above what was necessary to comply with Obamacare requirements.
"A challenge for insurance companies, industry insiders say, is that no one has issued a policy with the requirements of the federal law, so they don’t know how many claims will be made. Normally, insurers base premiums on the number of claims and their costs," the Morning News added.
“President Obama promised Americans that Obamacare would lower rates, but here in Georgia insurance companies are demanding massive rate increases up to 198 percent for some individuals,” Hudgens added.
Sebelius responded late Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters she is reviewing Hudgens' request.
“Notwithstanding the President’s many assurances to the contrary, I have always suspected that Obamacare would lead to higher health insurance rates,” said Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore David Shafer, R-Duluth. “But the rate increases pending before the Georgia Insurance Department are absolutely staggering in magnitude.”
Georgia is not the only state facing increased health insurance costs.
Individual health plans sold in Florida are expected to rise 30 to 40 percent in 2014.
According to a post at ModernHealthCare.com, a healthy young man in the individual market in Ohio "could experience a rate increase of between 90 percent and 130 percent."
The site said, however, that a 60-year-old with chronic health conditions "may see a significant premium decrease."
The Wall Street Journal also said some consumers could see rates double -- or even triple -- when they apply for care under the new law.
The exchanges are set to go into effect on October 1.
Related:
- Baghdad Jim’ McDermott: GOP scared of Obamacare because voters will love it
- Dem. Rep. Jim McDermott compares Obamacare opponents to Confederate Army
- Obama administration experimenting with ways to change Americans' behavior
- Kathleen Sebelius: Obamacare opponents like those who opposed civil rights
- Dem. Rep. Jim McDermott: Conservative groups deserved IRS abuse, harassment
- Washington Democrat Jim McDermott ‘tired of reading the Constitution’
- Fox News’ Megyn Kelly destroys ‘Baghdad Jim’ McDermott for blaming Tea Party
- Report: Senate GOP leadership undermining Mike Lee’s campaign to defund Obamacare
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