Health insurance premiums are going way up next year for people who buy their insurance on Healthcare.gov or the state-based marketplaces, according to an analysis out Friday.
The average person who buys Affordable Care Act insurance will be paying 75% more for their premium, according to the analysis from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
In 2026, 312 insurers nationwide are participating in the ACA marketplaces.
Most insurers proposed premium changes that fell between 12% and 27%. Four insurers proposed decreasing premiums while 125 requested premium increases of at least 20%, according to KFF.
The 2026 rates will be finalized later this summer.
To stop premiums for older workers with pre-existing conditions from suddenly leaping by $10,000, Republicans will need to extend part of this additional funding. But in return, they should insist on reforms to allow healthy Americans to purchase better value insurance with their own money.
Can ACA be reformed? Should ACA be junked in favor of a Medicare 4 All plan?
A previous president of the other had a chance for Medicare for All in his first with majories in both. But he blinked and went with private insurers. Private insurers lobbyists first rolled the Clintons into passage of Medicare Advantage then rolled Obama on Medicare for All. Iâm sure great amounts of cash rolled in congressional hands. We have the greatest congress money can buy and an occasional president too.
Yes, and Joe Lieberman stood in the way. Obama chose to pass something weaker rather than nothing. In the spirit of âdonât let perfect be the enemy of good.â
I know many people who were beneficiaries, getting healthcare for the first time in many years. Before Obama Care, the insurance companies counted acne as a pre-existing condition and denied care for many procedures.
Now, they have the president and both houses to Make America Grovel Again.
And as Democrats tried to salvage health reform Tuesday, some liberals could barely hide their sense of betrayal that the White House and congressional Democrats have been willing to cut deals and water down what they consider the ideal vision of reform.***
***âThe Senate version is not worth passing,â former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told POLITICO, referring to plans to strip the latest compromise from the bill, a Medicare buy-in. âI think in this particular iteration, this is the end of the road for reform.â
Dean said there are some good elements in the bill, but lawmakers should pull the plug and revisit the issue in Obamaâs second term, unless Democrats are willing to shortcut a GOP filibuster. âNo one will think this is health care reform. This is not even insurance reform,â he said.***
Medicare is paid for out of general Federal revenues. Given the debt situation of the government, wouldnât Medicare for all be like putting more people on the Titanic?
âMedicare for Allâ cannot work by simply expanding the bloated corrupt mess the ACA became. Medical care and medical treatments need to be integrated within an actual Public Health System that educates and informs the public from pregnancy until death, displacing the current âPrivate Profitable Medical Leech Systemâ, shifting the focus to acheiving best life time health results for least cost. As bad health is expensive and a terrible drag on businesses dependent on employees, a decent sane public health system actually saves money.
I have never understood medical pricing. My most recent experience was with a new prescription I needed.
Last Thursday I was pulling a pump on my daughterâs well when I sliced the tip of my index finger. It didnât bleed and I continued working. On Friday my finger was swollen. I thought maybe something was in the finger, so I dug around on it with a knife and a needle. I couldnât find anything and there wasnât any puss in the swollen area either. By Saturday I was concerned enough to go seek medical attention. The doc gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and a cream. Medicare paid for the Azithromycin but would not pay for the Mupirocin 2% cream. 15g of this cream listed for $213.49. The pharmacist found a discount card for me; Blink Discount Card, Iâve never heard of them. Anyway, my cost ended up being $21.82. Thatâs quite a price difference. Why do we have that?
I donât know and Iâm not one that asks about things like that. It was only 20 bucks. And itâs only a one-time prescription.
What I donât understand is how prices can be so wildly different on a medication. I experienced a similar price difference on one of my fatherâs prescriptions. One pharmacy wanted $100+ for a 30-day supply while another location sold him a 90-day supply for &16. Someone is making a lot of money.
How about the systemic âgrab every dime you can getâ motivated corruption of the medical/pharmaceutical/insurance industries that own Congress and so have overwhelming power over every pathetically hapless sick soul and their families as one of the PRIMARY MOTORs of our politics for decades?
Examine the hallowed ancient Hippocratic Oath, stand its underlying morality on its head, and you get close to modern dollar dominated Corporate USAian âhealthcareâ ethics, and god help any doctor or nurse or decent person who tries to stand in the way?
Greed is extremely terrifyingly simple â even easy â to understand, once the blinders (adverts starring magic drugs and careful caring medical personnel and empty promises) of the USAâs medical/industrial/investment complex are ripped away.
Payroll taxes and premiums account for roughly half of Medicare revenues. Then thereâs earnings on the Medicare trust fund. Yes, general federal revenues make up the difference, but the arenât the only source of funding.
For someone at 138% of the poverty line, Medicaid coverage with no co-pays or deductibles is cheaper for the Govât than the ACA refundable tax credits for a Silver Plan. Both Medicaid and the ACA tax credits come out of the Federal budget.
Thatâs how high the skim rates for the private insurers are. Youâre paying more for crappier coverage.
Thatâs why all the big insurance companies own a captive Pharmacy Benefit Manager. The money you make by price gouging on drugs isnât included in the 20% cap on the Obamacare skim rate or the 15% cap on Medicare Advantage.