Health insurance premiums increase across Illinois

If you live in Illinois and have private insurance – either through your employer or purchased on your own – your premiums likely increased this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare. Instead of reducing premiums by an average of $2,500 per family as promised, ObamaCare has increased what...

If you live in Illinois and have private insurance – either through your employer or purchased on your own – your premiums likely increased this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare. Instead of reducing premiums by an average of $2,500 per family as promised, ObamaCare has increased what families have to pay for coverage.

Illinois is composed of 102 counties. A new analysis from the Manhattan Institute shows just how high premiums have soared in Illinois’ individual health insurance market. According to their data, premiums increased in almost every county in the state and among almost every demographic.

For example, (see maps below) among 27-year-olds, average premiums increased for males in every county and for females in 100 of the state’s 102 counties. For 40-year-olds, average premiums increased for males in all but one county and for females in 85 of the 102 counties. Among 64-year-olds, premiums increased for men in 99 counties and for women in 101 of the 102 counties.

And the trend is only going to get worse.

Premium costs are artificially low because federal subsidies are masking their true cost. These subsidies are designed to minimize the risks of participating in ObamaCare health-insurance exchanges. But once those subsidies run out in 2016, prices will spike as the government passes the new costs along to the consumers.

Simply put, most people will be required to pay more.

A University of Minnesota study reports that, in five years, families who signed up on the exchange for bronze-level coverage will have to pay $5,000 more than they are paying today under ObamaCare. In just 10 years, families will have to pay close to $8,000 more than their original premium cost them.

These results are not what Obama and ObamaCare advocates promised. Perhaps that is why it should come as no surprise that the majority of the public now opposes the law. In addition to not being able to keep their doctor or health plan; many Illinoisans are now paying more for coverage.