INDIANAPOLIS – A new report shows that insurance companies are preparing to raise premiums by double digits to account for increasing costs and uncertainty in marketplaces across the nation thanks to GOP sabotage.

A report yesterday from Politico makes clear that health insurance companies are once again preparing for double-digit increases in health insurance premiums. The main culprit for this year’s premium increases, the report makes clear, are likely to be the changes to our health care system in the McConnell tax bill, which will cause as many as 13 million Americans to go without health care and drive up premiums for everyone else.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, premiums would only rise by three to five percent if next year were normal, but the McConnell bill’s changes alone will likely drive up premiums by as much as ten percent. Potential further changes by the Trump Administration around barebones policies could cause rates to rise even further.

With the Republican-controlled Congress also allowing crucial cost-sharing payments that keep premiums low to lapse, “plans will have to build the continued uncertainty that they’ve faced for years into their rates again,” Justine Handelman of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association told Politico.

“It seems the GOP’s sabotage of our health care markets will devastate Hoosiers once again next year, and likely far into the future if Republicans get their way,” said Michael Feldman, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party. “It’s outrageous that double-digit premium increases will hit Indiana families just so Republicans can try to benefit politically.”

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