Consumers across the United States who intend to buy their health insurance on the federal exchange won’t need to wait much longer to find out what their premiums will be, but they will still need to wait until after the election on November 4 for their first glimpse at the official figures.
That said, this won’t delay their ability to shop and make their purchases as open enrollment starts on November 15.
This means that it will be eleven days after the midterm vote that consumers will be able to head to the federal health insurance exchange in order to actually buy their coverage for 2015. Critics of the health care reform and of Obama, himself, have stated that there is no coincidence that the federal government has chosen to wait until November 15 for open enrollment, particularly when taking into consideration that consumers were given a great deal more time last year, when open enrollment on the federal marketplace started on October 1.
That said, while the states served by the federal insurance exchange will need to wait until after the election to see whether or not there will be premiums increases and how big they will be, there are other states – such as Alaska, Louisiana, and Iowa – where the cost increase details are already starting to become public and where there are key Senate contests.
In fact, in those three states, it has already been shown that the premiums hikes for the average person will be in the double digits from some of the insurance companies that are on the state exchanges. This has only added fuel to the fire in the attacks that Republicans are making in their latest round against the Affordable Care Act.
That said, those could be some of the more extreme examples of increases, as the Health Research Institute report on October 3 from PriceWaterhouseCoopers indicated that the average increase across the 40 states and the District of Columbia will be much lower, at 5.9 percent.
