
It will likely soon cost more for medical treatments due to Obamacare.
Insurers facing financial disaster have issued broad warnings about the detriments of Obamacare, saying they are coming up on two undesirable choices: either drop out of the marketplace or raise rates.
"Something has to give," said Larry Levitt, a Kaiser Family Foundation health-law expert, in the Hill. "Either insurers will drop out or insurers will raise premiums."
Advertisement - story continues below
Health-care companies say the big problem is they're losing money under the Obamacare mandates.
TRENDING: North Korea deports runaway U.S. soldier after he broke the law there
McKinsey & Company published a report showing insurers on the Obamacare marketplace in 41 states lost money in 2014.
"We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges," said Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna, a few weeks ago.
Advertisement - story continues below
The overall message to consumers: Be prepared for higher rates.
"The industry is clearly setting the stage for bigger premium increases in 2017," Levitt said.
Companies are due to start filing their proposed premium increases for 2017 in the coming weeks. State regulators, after review, will determine if those rate hikes are acceptable.
"Given that most carriers have experienced losses in the exchanges, often large losses, it only makes sense that most exchange insurers will request significant rate increases for 2017," said Michael Adelberg, a former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services official for President Obama's administration who now consults at FaegreBD, the Hill reported. "Market exits are not out of the question if an insurer is looking at consecutive years of losses and regulators are unable to approve rates that get the insurer to break even."