Such an innocent-looking Tweet.
Board approves 2015 budget and carrier assessment with a 7 to 1 vote
— C4HCO (@C4HCO) June 9, 2014
Reading it – or the Twitter feed in general, which is for Colorado’s state Obamacare exchange – you’d never know that it represents a $13 million rate (read: ‘tax’) hike on Colorado voters. But that is indeed what it is. It’s also a budget that is more or less out of control, but more on that later.
In the first look at how insurers plan to adjust prices in the second year under the federal health-care law, filings from Virginia carriers show they are opting for premium increases in 2015 that will pinch consumers’ pocketbooks but fall short of some bigger rate predictions.
The new premium proposals, detailed in official filings to the state’s insurance regulator, show health plans all opting for some increases.
The filings show insurers’ planned increases easily outpacing broader U.S. inflation, but shy of the much larger boosts some critics predicted.
Continue reading WSJ looks for good news on rising Obamacare premiums, fails to really find any.
Basically, what’s happening is that doctors – looking for stability, which is easily the least reliable quality of Obamacare right now – are ending their private practices and going back to hospitals. The problem there? Well, as the New York Times notes (through gritted teeth), hospitals are using this as an opportunity to increase fees, not efficiency (which would hopefully lower them). The NYT is hopeful – somehow – that the system will work itself out under Obamacare; alas, we all know what happens when the government decides to deal with the problems arising from governmental distortion of markets with more distortion of the markets, yes-no? Continue reading Quote of the Day, #Obamacare Will Get More Centralized edition.