INDIANA, (WOWO/NETWORK INDIANA): If you’re on Obamacare, your rates in Indiana may actually be going up, despite some reports that said Indiana’s reach was expected to drop by three percent next year.
The Indiana Department of Insurance released a statement late Tuesday disputing a report that said that rates would go down. Instead, officials with the department said it’s possible that some Hoosiers will see rates increase by as much as 29 percent on average.
The department said the following will happen:
- Next year, based upon current enrollment, the average rate will increase by 18.7% over the 2016 rates for the Indiana Marketplace.
- Overall, the premiums in the Indiana individual market have gone up by almost 70% since the Affordable Care Act was implemented. Members currently enrolled in the state’s largest plan may see up to an average 29% increase.
William Short, Health Insurance Expert, says this is a bombshell for a lot of Hoosiers.
“We’ve entered the death spiral. It’s like, ya know, everyone that said hey it’s going to go this direction, it’s going this direction, unfortunately. It seems the answer that we’re hearing out of Washington is we’ll just go to a government option; we’ll just go to a government plan.”
He says breaking down the barriers between states, to allow people to choose what is best for them, would help ease the cost of the rising premiums.
“You know more competition, we know what happens, it drives down price… it makes no sense that we can put up these barriers by state and people can’t shop for coverage across state lines for the coverage that’s best for them and their families.”
