An official announcement has been made that the Obamacare website, healthcare.gov, will not be allowing visitors to see the rate changes that will occur in the year 2015 until after the election, leaving rate hikes yet to be revealed. This move has many concerned, as early preparations are being made by many to determine which Affordable Care Act health insurance plans they can afford, but without the information on rates for the upcoming year they are jumping to the conclusion that they won’t be able to afford the new rates.
It has been said that Obamacare plans are simply not affordable for the average family, but now more than ever, families and political activists are taking hits at the government stating that there must be a reason why they will not reveal the rates for the upcoming year and that that reason is because the rates will probably be much worse. President of Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips said the, “decision to withhold the costs…is just more proof that Obamacare is a bad deal for Americans,” and many others have expressed that they agree.
However, those that defend the Affordable Care Act state that the issue goes much deeper than that. The Senate is currently in battle with three states, Iowa, Louisiana, and Alaska, as all three states are fighting insurance companies on their rates. But these three states, though they are looking at premium hikes in the double digits, are actually not the only states fighting against the rate of health insurance costs. In fact, just a few weeks ago the news caught hold of a petition in California, where residents were fighting to give the insurance commissioner control over the insurance rates, asking the commissioner to justify the rates amongst all carriers that are allowed to participate in the Obamacare exchange.
This issue, though many thought would be a good thing, has actually been causing many problems as politicians are saying that forcing insurance carriers to justify their rates would not only cause the majority of them to pull out of the state exchange, leaving residents without any options, but would also cause insurance rates to increase rather than decrease.
Americans nationwide are also worried about this fact as they are finding that many carriers are canceling their plans and even refusing to offer coverage at all, in certain states. Politicians nationwide argue that if the insurance options decrease in large numbers, the remaining options will be the ones with very high premiums and high deductibles. In addition, if there is no competition between insurance carriers than the ones that are left can increase their rates even higher.
While Americans worry, they look to those directly involved in the government to help end the battles against prices, which the government is saying is the reason for the unrevealed rates for 2015. According to government officials, and the ACA website, the rates will be revealed after Nov. 4, when the election occurs. They justify this decision by stating that open enrollment for Obamacare does not begin until Nov. 15, giving them plenty of time to release the new rate information on all of the plans.
Mario Lopez of Fox News Latino remembers the day when President Obama said that Obamacare would put health insurance companies in their place. Though, now it seems that insurance companies continuously have the upper hand as rates are, once again, expected to increase, and no one is allowed to know yet, just how high.
By Crystal Boulware
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