Prices for health insurance in Wisconsin look like they could be going up. Way up.
The state’s health-insurance regulator yesterday completed its initial analysis of rate filings in the individual insurance market. The office attempted to compare the rates that 21-year-old, 40-year-old, and 63-year-old Wisconsinites are currently paying in eight cities with what they will be paying after 2014 when Obamacare is fully in effect.
For a plan with a $2,000 deductible and prescription-drug coverage, young people in the Madison area will see a staggering 125 percent increase in costs; even seniors, who theoretically should benefit most from the new health-care law, will see their rates shoot up by as much as 45 percent. The increases will be smaller in some places: Seniors in the Kenosha area will only see their rates increase 10 percent, though youth will still see a 38 percent increase.
Commissioner Ted Nickel noted that “some consumers will be eligible for a taxpayer-funded subsidy” that will offset the premium costs for low-income earners, but predicted that “premiums will increase for most consumers.”
Via The Weekly Standard.