Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said Tuesday it will raise rates as much as 24 percent on 2013 individual health insurance plans that are being extended next year.
The increase is double the price inflation for the same health plans just a year ago, but many Blue Cross customers who have grumbled about rising costs in past years are cheering the news this time.
The health plans were marked for elimination under the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s health care law, but Blue Cross said last week it would offer the plans next year. President Barack Obama urged insurers to extend the individual plans for one year amid a public outcry over forced cancellations and steep price increases for replacement plans.
The N.C. Department of Insurance will review the proposed rates and, if it determines they are too high, it could order Blue Cross to issue refunds. The agency has not set a deadline to review the proposed rates, which go into effect Jan. 1.
“I say that you cannot administer
a wicked law impartially.
You can only destroy.
You can only punish.
I warn you that a wicked law,
like cholera, destroys everyone
it touches — its upholders
as well as its defiers.”
— Jerome Lawrence
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