FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Nearly a dozen health insurers are proposing double-digit rate hikes for 2016 Florida plans sold on the health insurance exchanges created under President Barack Obama's law.
According to preliminary rate data released Monday by the federal government, one of Aetna's plans requested a 21 percent hike, while plans for United and Coventry were looking for increases of 18 percent. United requested a 31 percent bump in one of its plans sold off the exchange. But the state's largest health insurer, Florida Blue, has not requested a rate hike of more than 10 percent.
State health officials are set to release the final figures in early August, but the early numbers are pointing to bigger premium increases than in 2015.
Insurers cited higher-than-expected care costs and rising expense of prescription drugs as the reason for the spikes.
