Some health insurers raising rates again

[n2doc]

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Some health insurers are bumping up rates yet again to reflect changes mandated by the new federal health overhaul law as well as state reforms that will go into effect Jan. 1.

Blue Shield of California, for example, has sent letters informing customers with individual policies that their premiums will go up in the low single digits because of the federal law.

Some of those same policyholders also could see their rates go up as much as an additional 17.7 percent to account for a new state law that will prohibit insurers from charging women more for insurance than men.

For consumers, many of whom already have been hit this year with hefty premium increases to accommodate higher medical costs, the additional raise attributed to health reform will further strain their budgets.

Scott Morgan, a Blue Shield customer in San Francisco, saw his premium rise by 29 percent in June, so he was stunned to get another rate increase, this time for 34 percent. That means the same coverage he was paying $335 a month for at the end of May will cost him $581 a month come January.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/08/MN8I1GLJ8L.DTL

[Festivito]

1. Bullshit. They raise them every year by the single-digits, and two-digits for years.

This is aimed at a population that is already in the dark about yearly raises always being around 8% and going up by 25-35% either two years ago to this year, along with increasing deductibles.