ACA Exchanges Expected To See Big Rate Hikes

USA Today (9/1, O’Donnell, Leys) reports, “Dramatic drops in insurance company participation on” some states’ Affordable Care Act exchanges and decreased competition are, in part, causing “often jarring rate hikes” for next year’s premiums that “threaten to surpass the” the pre-ACA individual market’s “high and wildly fluctuating rates,” according to insurance regulators and records. Health and Human Service Department Secretary Sylvia Burwell said that insurance premiums probably remained below the level they’d be under the Congressional Budget Office’s early high projections and that the ACA affected many Americans, not just the 11 million people enrolled in insurance through the exchanges. She also said her agency can take administrative actions to make the exchanges “sustainable in the long term,” although she added that congressional action could “speeds things up.” Meanwhile, National Association of Insurance Commissioners President John Huff said it is “past due” for “substantive corrections” to the ACA.