The cost of health insurance in the Kansas Obamacare marketplace is going up. But not as much as originally feared. Jim McLean, of the KHI News Service, reports.
====================
(SCRIPT)
Kansas insurance companies planning to sell policies in the Obamacare marketplace during the upcoming open enrollment period filed for big rate increases in May. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas – the state’s largest insurer – asked for increases of between 35 and 39 percent. But Republican Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer says many of the proposed increases were too high. So, he pared them back. They now range from 9 to 25 percent. He says the companies need to charge higher premiums in 2016 to make up for underwriting losses they suffered in the first two years of Obamacare. The companies had to essentially guess on their initial premiums and underestimated the cost of covering tens of thousands of previously uninsured Kansans with pent up health care needs. The new policies will be available on the federal healthcare.gov website starting November 1. I’m Jim McLean.
