by A2 Indy Staff

HEALTH INSURANCE premiums are shooting up for most Michigan residents that purchase their own coverage in the first year after Obamacare, state insurers have reported.

All insurers in the state are hiking their premiums, from 2.7 percent up to 21.6 percent. Michigan’s largest insurers, Blue Care Network and Blue Cross Blue Shield, are hiking premiums by an average of 9.3 percent and 9.7 percent in 2015 for a whopping three-quarters of Michigan residents that purchase their coverage on or off the state’s Obamacare exchange.

Blue Cross executive Terry Burke said the hikes are needed to account for ever-rising health care costs and uncertainty related to the Obamacare expansion bringing in sicker-than-average patients.

“We’ve got a big influx of people and we don’t know what their claims conditions are,” Burke told the South Bend Tribune. “The actuaries are concerned about that risk mix.”

The next largest insurer, Humana, is hiking rates by 18 percent on average for its 16,600 customers. Smaller insurers are upping their premium rates in a wider range, from around 3 percent to as high as 21 percent.

Michigan regulators responded that the rate hikes weren’t finalized, warning that there are a host of regulations insurers must abide by.

“We have to thoroughly review the rate plans and the rates themselves to ensure they’re actuarially sound and there’s adequate network coverage and take into account general public comments,” said insurance department spokesman Caleb Buhs.

Sixteen more insurers will offer plans on the Obamacare exchange next year, likely with higher premiums than customers are accustomed to.

While most of those who purchase health insurance in the individual market across the country are still experiencing large rate increases in the wake of Obamacare, the health care law’s redistribution measures between insurers are pushing back the health care law’s biggest hikes until 2016 and 2017, according to experts.

It was recently announced by health insurers in Vermont, Connecticut and Arizona that Obamacare customers will almost universally be paying higher premiums in 2015.

Insurers in those states are upping premiums for all Obamacare exchange customers. In Vermont, MVP Health Care has requested an average rate increase of 15.4 percent, while the only other insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, requested average hikes of 9.8 percent.

The lowest increase came from BCBS at 5.6 percent for the lowest-quality coverage, a high-deductible bronze plan, while the largest hike was an 18 percent increase for MVP’s silver plan — the most popular health plan type nationally.

In Arizona, some health plans are raising rates even faster. While not all Arizona’s Obamacare insurers have submitted proposals, two top insurers are planning to up rates drastically: Cigna proposed average premium hikes of 14.4 percent and Humana requested a 25.5 percent boost. Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest individual market insurer, expects to file their requests with state officials by the end of June.

Obamacare premiums in Ohio are slated to rise by 13 percent on average in 2015, the state’s insurance department announced last week.

Overall, that will mean the average health insurance premium will cost $374.42 per month next year, compared to $332.58 each month for coverage in 2014. Small businesses will be hit with an 11 percent average premium hike, bringing up the average monthly cost to $446.78, up from $401.99 for comparable health policies this year.

“It’s bad news, no doubt, but it’s what we expected and it’s what the research we did in advance predicted would happen,” said Ohio Lt. Governor Mary Taylor in a statement. “Ohio has traditionally had a very competitive insurance market which meant our rates were lower than a lot of other states. That means that Obamacare is hitting us harder and driving our costs up significantly.”