Sticker Shock in Illinois: Proves ObamaCare Isn't Working

With all the political news regarding the Trump/Kahn controversy, most Americans missed the news that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois announced rate hikes of between 23% and 45% for their various health insurance plans in the ObamaCare exchanges.  While the Illinois Department of Insurance must still approve the rate increase requests, this merely shows, once again, that insurers are losing their shirts trying to work with ObamaCare.  And, as I pointed out previously, without an approval of these rates, insurers will simply stop selling policies in the exchanges.

Also understand, the American taxpayer is the biggest loser when a company asks for a 45% rate increase, since, in Illinois, 75% of the people who buy insurance in the exchanges will receive federal subsidies.  While this is still lower than the overall average of 86% as reported by Health and Human Services, it proves that the primary reason for buying ObamaCare insurance is that it is either free or somewhat inexpensive; and that the 33 million people who still, after 3 years of enrollments, haven't bought insurance because they can't afford to do so.

So much for the success of the so-called Affordable Care Act.

References:

Illinois' Obamacare plans seek big 2017 premium hikes: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-illinois-obamacare-rates-0802-biz-20160801-story.html

86 Percent of Health Law Enrollees Receive Subsidies, White House Says: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/11-7-million-americans-have-insurance-under-health-act.html?_r=0

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