Rep. Messer: Hoosier health care premiums could jump
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — If you get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, you could be paying a lot more next year.
The increases are significant in Indiana. Caresource Indiana went up 20 percent, with its average premium now nearly $500 per month.
Celtic Insurance Company went up 35 percent, with an average premium also around $500.
While the Affordable Care Act has increased the number of Americans who receive health insurance, critics say the ACA is unsustainable, pointing to the plummeting number of providers and skyrocketing premiums.
Republican Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.) said it’s disappointing that legislation to repeal the ACA hasn’t been able to pass through Congress. The latest failed effort, called the Graham-Cassidy bill, would have given states more flexibility on how to fund health insurance.
But estimates showed Indiana would have lost billions of dollars in federal grant funding for health care.
We asked Rep. Messer if that estimate raised eyebrows to him, since he supported the bill.
“Look, the Obamacare solution was to grab a trillion dollars and try to throw money at the healthcare problem,” Messer said. “I don’t think the answer to providing affordable health care to Hoosiers is throwing more money at it.”
But Messer said the push to repeal or alter the ACA is far from over.
President Trump announced this week he is hoping to sign an executive order soon that would allow Americans to buy insurance across state lines.
“Should drop mandates and lower rates and give people the ability to be in charge of their own health care,” he said.
While details on that potential executive order have not been been released, Messer said he believes people who do buy insurance across state lines would not need to go to a doctor in the state from which the insurance was purchased.