Thousands of North Carolina residents are facing huge increases in their health care premiums due to new coverage rules imposed by Obamacare.
Because the Affordable Care Act mandates certain types of coverage each health care plan must contain, some insurers like Blue Cross are canceling existing plans and requiring customers to purchase new plans.
How large are the increases? For some families, the changes will mean tens of thousands of dollars a year, the Charlotte Observer reports:
One of them is George Schwab of Charlotte, who pays $228 a month for his family’s $10,000 deductible plan from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
In a Sept. 23 letter, Blue Cross notified him that his current plan doesn’t meet benefit requirements outlined in the Affordable Care Act and suggested a comparable plan for $1,208 a month – $980 more than he now pays. [...]
"The President told the American people numerous times that… ‘If you like your coverage, you can keep it,’" Schwab said. "How can we keep it if it has been eliminated? How can we keep it if the premium has been increased 430 percent in one year?"
Another family the Observer profiles would now pay $24,000 annually, up from $14,000.
The rate hikes at Blue Cross will affect one-third of the approximately 400,000 Blue Cross individual market customers in the state, the Observer reports.