Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com
10/15/2010
The state of Connecticut just approved a request by its largest private insurer for premium hikes of up to 47%. Wasn’t ObamaCare supposed to put an end to these kinds of price increases, with Barack Obama’s promise to “bend the cost curve downward”? Actually, as the Hartford Courant reports, the increases come as a direct result of the mandates included in ObamaCare:
The state’s largest insurer has been approved to raise health premium rates by 41 percent to 47 percent for some of its policies sold to individual buyers, in the largest price hikes yet seen in Connecticut since the adoption of national health care reform.
For all of its individual market plans, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has received approval to raise rates by at least 19 percent — including a range of 30 percent to 44 percent for the brand of plans in the individual market that was most popular in 2009, Century Preferred.
The reason for the increases is the new federal health reform mandates, according to Anthem and the state Department of Insurance, which is defending its approval against charges by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Those reforms took effect Sept. 23.
Anthem’s spokesperson attributed the costs directly to new benefits required by the mandates in ObamaCare…
The article continues at HotAir.com
Update: Read also, ObamaCare’s Unseen Costs, at Reason.com
…As it stands, the Affordable Care Act will lead to the taxation of health care benefits. Starting in 2018, high-end health care plans will be subject to a 40 percent excise tax for any benefits that exceed $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for a family.
Indeed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is chock full of tax hikes. And those taxes will cost more than you might think…
