Obamacare premiums rise steeply in Louisiana and Iowa

State regulators approved significant premium hikes on the Louisiana and Iowa Obamacare exchanges this week. Sarah Hurtubise of the Daily Caller reports that premiums will rise by double-digits in both states. This is bad news, I assume, for Mary Landrieu and Bruce Braley, the struggling Democratic Senate candidates in the two states.

In Louisiana, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, the exchange’s largest insurer, is hiking prices between 18.3 percent and 19.7 percent for three different plans that cover more than 52,000 people. Humana will increase its exchange premium rates by 9.9 percent and Vantage Health Plan by 15.9 percent.

In Iowa, CoOportunity the biggest insurer on the exchange, raised its premium by 19 percent on average. The other major exchange insurer will increase rates by 8.7 percent.

In Colorado, which also has a hotly contested Senate race, the news is better for Democrats. It recently announced that exchange premiums will rise by only 1.18 percent. However, several Colorado towns already had the highest premiums in the nation during the first open enrollment period and they will not be adjusted.

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