How Much Will Obamacare Coverage Cost? The facts.

How Much Will Obamacare Coverage Cost?  by Amy Payne

As many Americans are losing their current health plans, they may be striking out on their own into Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. (Or at least they will be, if the website ever starts working.)

Thanks to a new study, you can quickly get a sense of the Obamacare prices hitting your state’s individual insurance market. Analyst Drew Gonshorowski is a step ahead. He took all the available data released thus far from the states and federal government and calculated the average premium change (per month) from buying health insurance in the non-group market to buying in the Obamacare exchanges.

Unsurprisingly, Obamacare brings increases across the board. The news is particularly bad for young people. In at least 11 states, the hike for a 27-year-old is more than 100 percent.

“Our findings confirm that younger populations see larger percentage increases in premiums,” Gonshorowski said. “A state that exhibits this clearly is Vermont, where the increase for 27-year-olds is 144 percent and the increase for 50-year-olds is still 60 percent, but far less. All states exhibit this relationship.”

Critics have noted that in a few states, premiums have actually gone down. Gonshorowski explains why they’re seeing this—and that it’s not the norm:

Individuals in most states will end up spending more on the exchanges. It is true that in some states, the experience could be the opposite. This is because those states had already over-regulated insurance markets that led to sharply higher premiums through adverse selection, as is the case of New York. Many states, however, double or nearly triple premiums for young adults. Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Vermont see some of the largest increases in premiums.

President Obama promised premiums would go down by $2,500. But Gonshorowski reports that “the claims of savings on premiums for the average participant is a fantasy.”