Sebelius: Some insurance costs could increase when health law is implemented

The HHS secretary's remarks came as insurers are becoming increasingly jittery about how sweeping health law changes will impact the marketplace and on the same day that the Society of Actuaries released a study that predicted increased medical claims costs.

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Sebelius: Some Could See Insurance Premiums Rise
Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health-care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Tuesday. Ms. Sebelius's remarks come weeks before insurers are expected to begin releasing rates for plans that start on Jan. 1, 2014, when key provisions of the health law kick in (Radnofsky, 3/26).

Reuters: Some Healthcare Costs May Rise When 'Obamacare' Implemented: Official
President Barack Obama's top healthcare adviser acknowledged on Tuesday that costs could rise in the individual health insurance market, particularly for men and younger people, because of the landmark 2010 healthcare restructuring due to take effect next year. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said definitive data on costs will not be available until later this year when private health plans become authorized to sell federally subsidized coverage on new state-based online marketplaces, known as exchanges (Mason and Morgan, 3/26).

She also spoke about Medicare -

USA Today: White House Warns Cutting Medicare Will Shift Costs
If Congress addresses the nation's budget deficit by cutting Medicare, that will simply shift health care costs to the private sector and not address the underlying issues, Obama administration officials said Tuesday at a White House briefing. "If you only focus on Medicare, you shift the costs," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, adding that Medicare and Medicaid are not the reason health costs are going up (Kennedy, 3/26).


http://www.kaiserhealthnews.orgThis article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

 

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

Sign in to keep reading

We're committed to providing free access to quality science. By registering and providing insight into your preferences you're joining a community of over 1m science interested individuals and help us to provide you with insightful content whilst keeping our service free.

or

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
New national dataset maps how far Australians must drive to reach essential healthcare services