INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody issued the following statement after a new study found that a double-digit spike in premiums on individual insurance policies in 2018 can be attributed to President Donald Trump’s actions.
“Congressional Republicans, including Congressman Luke Messer and Congressman Todd Rokita, have claimed that they’ve spoken out against rising premiums. Turns out the underlying source of those increases lies at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The fallout from the GOP’s intentional sabotage of the Affordable Care Act will mean tens of thousands of Hoosiers paying higher premiums. That’s unacceptable. It’s time for Republicans in Congress to drop the political games and work across the aisle to improve our nation’s health care system.”
Associated Press: Study: Trump actions trigger health premium hikes for 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s own actions are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many consumers, a nonpartisan study has found.
The analysis released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that mixed signals from President Donald Trump have created uncertainty “far outside the norm,” leading insurers to seek higher premium increases for 2018 than would otherwise have been the case.
The report comes with Republicans in Congress unable to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Trump, meanwhile, insists lawmakers try again. The president says “Obamacare” is collapsing, but he’s also threatened to give it a shove by stopping billions of dollars in payments to insurers. Some leading Republicans are considering fallback measures to stabilize markets.
Researchers from the Kaiser foundation looked at proposed premiums for a benchmark silver plan across major metropolitan areas in 20 states and Washington, D.C. Overall, they found that 15 of those cities will see increases of 10 percent or more next year.
The highest: a 49 percent jump in Wilmington, Delaware. The only decline: a 5 percent reduction in Providence, Rhode Island.
About 10 million people who buy policies through HealthCare.gov and state-run markets are potentially affected, as well as another 5 million to 7 million who purchase individual policies on their own.
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