Recent Articles

Report: Individual Health Insurance Rates Rising Despite Federal Law

Sept. 14, 2010 – Despite federal efforts to make health insurance more affordable and expand coverage to more people, the cost of health insurance continues to rise by an average 20 percent annually, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Foundation officials recently released results of their national health insurance survey of individuals who do not have group health insurance, and the results suggest most won’t be able to continue paying for their own health insurance without cutting costs elsewhere. A large majority – 77 percent – of those surveyed said their health insurance premiums were scheduled to increase by at least 20 percent this year. About 14 million Americans obtain their health insurance coverage through non-group policies, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The online survey, conducted in March and April among more than 1,000 adult Americans identifying themselves as “working” suggests federal lawmakers were right to attempt to reform the nation’s health care system, Kaiser officials said in a statement. But whether those changes actually will survive legal challenges remains to be seen.

“With people in the individual market being hit with average increases of 20 percent, the survey shows that the steep increases we have been reading about over the last several months are not just extreme cases,” Kaiser Family Foundation officials said in a statement. “In the vast majority of states, the non-group market is subject to substantially less regulation than group insurance. Much will change under the new health reform law.”

Although President Barack Obama on March signed into the $938 billion federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, how much of the new law survives legal challenges is in question. A federal judge today said he would allow some elements of a 20-state legal challenge to the federal health care law and spearheaded by Florida officials to proceed to trial without specifying which elements he would allow to be contested. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a similar but separate legal challenge, and voters in Missouri recently approved a mostly symbolic ballot initiative making it illegal for any government to require state residents to buy health insurance if they don’t already have coverage.

The $938 billion health care package that largely begins to take effect in 2013 requires qualifying individuals without health insurance to purchase it or pay an annual $750 fine – unless the individual is a member of certain religious organizations, such as various Amish sects or the Church of Christ Science. It expands federal Medicaid health insurance coverage for the poor to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level – currently $10,830 for individuals and $22,050 for families with four members, and provides federal subsidies for qualifying individuals and families to help pay for health insurance coverage.

The legislation also creates health insurance exchanges for U.S. citizens to purchase affordable health insurance coverage with federal subsidies available for people earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Federal lawmakers say the health insurance mandate and creation of health insurance exchanges should help the estimated 31 million Americans currently lacking health insurance coverage to obtain it and force those who currently choose not to purchase health insurance to buy it.