Insurers warn of health care overhaul costs

Health insurance bills for some Americans could double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.

The nation's big health insurers say they expect premiums -- or the cost for insurance coverage -- to rise from 20 percent to 100 percent for millions of people when key provisions of the Affordable Care Act roll out in January 2014.

Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna Inc., calls the price hikes "premium rate shock." During the company's annual meeting with investors in December, Bertolini said, "I think it's a big concern."

To be sure, there will be no across-the-board rate hikes for everyone, and there's no reliable national data on how many people could see increases. But the biggest price hikes are expected to hit a group that represents a relatively small slice of the insured population. That includes some of the roughly 14 million people who buy their own insurance as opposed to being covered under employer-sponsored plans, and to a lesser extent, some employees of smaller companies.

President Barack Obama's health care law is expected to expand coverage to nearly 30 million uninsured people. The massive law calls for a number of changes that could cause premiums for people who don't have coverage through a big employer to rise next year.

Changes to how insurers set premiums according to age and gender could cause some premiums to rise as much as 50 percent, according to America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, an industry trade group.

A new tax on premiums could raise prices up to 2.3 percent in 2014, AHIP said. Requirements that insurance plans in many cases cover more health care or pay a greater share of a patient's bill also could add to premiums, the group said.

The Obama administration says the law balances added costs in several ways, including tax credits for consumers.

-- AP