Health insurance rates in Georgia are rising by up to 198 percent under Obamacare, the Georgia Insurance Commissioner said in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday.
States are required by the Affordable Care Act to report new insurance premium rates for state exchanges run by the federal government by the end of July.
Commissioner Ralph Hudgens in his letter asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend Georgia’s deadline for reporting the insurance rates by one month to give his office more time to investigate and approve the new, higher rates.
“Georgia consumers cannot afford these massive rate increases,” Hudgens wrote to Sebelius.
The Georgia insurance department compared the cost of insurance within the exchanges to what people pay now for similar coverage, and the rates were going up for every age group, said Jay Florence, an insurance department official under Hudgens.
For an average 25 year-old male, premiums are set to rise 85 to 198 percent within the exchanges, while for a 45 year-old male, premiums will rise 40 to 100 percent, Florence said. A 64 year-old male will pay 18 to 48 percent more under Obamacare’s regime.
“The delay is simply trying to give the administration an opportunity to explain that and maybe explain what our actuaries weren’t able to determine, which is that these rates are excessive,” he said.
Hudgens requested that Sebelius respond by end of business today. As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, HHS had not responded, according to another official in the commissioner’s office. HHS did not return a request from the Washington Free Beacon for comment.
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