California Showing Promise for Obamacare Costs...

There's word coming out of California that new health insurance premiums are far lower than previously anticipated. Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post has the story.

A preview:

Health insurers will charge 25-year-olds between $142 and $190 per month for a bare-bones health plan in Los Angeles.

A 40-year-old in San Francisco who wants a top-of-the-line plan would receive a bill between $451 and $525. Downgrade to a less robust option, and premiums fall as low as $221. These premium rates, released Thursday, help answer one of the biggest questions about Obamacare: How much health insurance will cost. They do so in California, the state with 7.1 million uninsured residents, more than any other place in the country.

Multiple projections expected premiums to be relatively high.

The Congressional Budget Office predicted back in November 2009 that a medium-cost plan on the health exchange – known as a “silver plan” – would have an annual premium of  $5,200. A separate report from actuarial firm Milliman projected that, in California, the average silver plan would have a $450 monthly premium.  Now we have California’s rates, and they appear to be significantly less expensive than what forecasters expected.

Read the entire story here... 

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/23/california-obamacare-premiums-no-rate-shock-here/?wprss=rss_ezra-klein&wpisrc=nl_wonk_b