Has Obamacare Brought Down the Size of Health Insurance Rate Hikes?

Sarah Kliff reports here that

Researchers combed through data available from the 15 states that publicly post all requests for rate increases in the individual market. They found that, in 2009, 74 percent of all requests came in above 10 percent. By 2012, that number had fallen to 35 percent. Preliminary data for 2013, which only cover a handful of states, shows 14 percent of rate increases asking for a double-digit bump.

The Obama Administration says that the new health care law should get credit for the drop in rate hikes. Kliff explains that the law's rate review program requires that proposed insurance rate hikes of more than 10% be reviewed for reasonableness by either a state or federal regulator.

The chart below depicts the drop in the percentage of double-digit rate hike requests since 2010 in the 15 states where data is publicly available. In 2010, more than 70% of rate hike requests were 10% or greater. Most recently, only about 10% of rate hike requests were in double digits.

 

Comments

[official site]

I think so. Actually my friend told me, who is a health insurance agent, that their sale is really affected and that they have to lower down their prices else they wont get any sale.

[societati asigurari RCA]

They found that, in 2009, 74 percent of all requests came in above 10 percent.