The Affordable Care Act discourages insurers from imposing unreasonable premium increases in a couple of ways.
The government could raise more than £86m a year for social and affordable housing by imposing a premium property tax on luxury London homes bought by the global super-rich, researchers have calculated.
Many insurers denied coverage arbitrarily, and when they did accept applicants, they imposed outlandish premiums.
Legislators could raise fees, impose new premiums or scale back covered services.
YOUR HEALTH -- Young people, particularly young men, are usually ideally suited for a high-deductible plan that imposes lower premiums.
But if your status as a smoker is discovered, insurers can retroactively impose higher premiums and cancel you if you don't pay.
Insurers who participate in this market must sell plans with a standard set of comprehensive benefits, and may not deny coverage to, or impose higher premiums on, persons with pre-existing conditions.
Until they receive information indicating otherwise, rates remain unchanged". State law requires insurers to give policyholders at least 30 days' notice before altering rates, meaning Anthem could not impose higher premiums until the end of the May at the earliest.
"They looked for other ways to limit costs of their state high risk pool programs -- surcharging premiums, imposing high deductibles and low lifetime limits, and most of all, excluding people based on their pre-existing conditions," Pollitz said.
Of the 28 states that originally resisted, almost all of which were in the Deep South or under control of conservative Republican governors or legislatures, eight eventually came around, including six that have been permitted to tweak Medicaid standards by charging small premiums, imposing co-pays or limiting or eliminating some benefits.
