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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By Bloomberg News Service
December 13, 2012
Health insurance premiums may as much as double for some small businesses
and individual buyers in the U.S. when the Affordable Care Act’s major
provisions start in 2014, Aetna’s chief executive officer said.
While subsidies in the law will shield some people, other consumers who make
too much for assistance are in for “premium rate shock,” Mark Bertolini,
who runs the third-biggest U.S. health-insurance company, told analysts
yesterday at a conference in New York. The prospect has spurred discussion
of having Congress delay or phase in parts of the law, he said.
“We’ve shared it all with the people in Washington and I think it’s a big
concern,” the CEO said. “We’re going to see some markets go up as much
as 100%.”
Bertolini’s prediction is at odds with Congressional Budget Office
estimates that the law will have little effect on small and large-employer
plans and the Obama administration’s projections that middle-class families
will actually save money. The 2010 law is expected to extend health care to
about 30 million people who otherwise couldn’t get insurance, paid for by
new taxes and fees on companies and wealthier individuals.
Those taxes will make coverage more expensive for insurers, as will other
provisions such as a ban on discriminating against people with pre-existing
medical conditions, Bertolini said. Premiums are likely to increase 25% to
50% on average in the small-group and individual markets, he said, citing
projections by his Hartford, Conn.-based company.
High estimate
The one-time jump in rates also includes increases in costs that would come
even without the law, Bertolini said.
“That just seems silly,” said Gary Claxton, a vice president at Kaiser
Family Foundation, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based nonprofit that studies health
issues. “I can’t imagine anything going on in the small-group market that
would change the average premium that much. On the individual market, there
’s arguments for things changing, but those magnitudes seem high.”
The Obama administration said last year that “middle-class families”
buying insurance through the law’s new online exchanges may save as much as
$2,300 a year starting in 2014. Nick Papas, a White House spokesman,
declined to comment on Bertolini’s predictions.
The CBO estimated in 2009 that the law will increase premiums 10% to 13% for
individuals and have little effect on small- and large-employer plans.
After the subsidies are factored in, individual bills will go down by about
60%, the agency predicted.
About 43% of people who buy on the exchanges, or individual markets outside
of them, won’t be eligible for subsidies, according to the report. They
would see premium increases “somewhat less” than 10% to 13%, CBO predicted
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