Interview: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of ND Says Insurance Premiums May Double Under Obamacare
Rod St. Aubyn, director of government affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, told me in an interview this week that as Obamacare is implemented nationally it will have little impact on health care costs despite being called, officially, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“This is not health care reform,” St. Aubyn told me. “This is health insurance reform.” He went on to say that Obamacare does “very little to address the cost of health care.”
Asked what sort of impact the law, which includes numerous mandates for expanded coverage, will have on insurance premiums St. Aubyn said the “rough estimate” BCBS is using, based on the fact that there are still a lot of aspects of this law that haven’t yet been defined, is a 15% increase in group (employer) insurance policies and as much as a 75% – 100% increase in individual insurance policies.
