December 5th, 2012 – The major tenants of the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, will come into place on January 1st, 2014.   At that time, health insurance will become guarantee issue and a host of new mandates will have to be added to all new plans.

So, the question is, will health insurance rates become more affordable as a result of the ACA?  Not likely.

The CBO estimates that premiums in the individual market will increase 10% to 13% on account of the health insurance requirements in the ACA. In the small group health insurance market, the CBO estimates that the ACA will have little impact on premiums.

Industry professionals expect increases above what the COB predicted.

Please note that this is in addition to normal insurance rate increases caused by the ever-increasing underlying costs of health care in America. Also, these differences in premium would be before income based federal subsidies are applied to anyone’s premiums, for those who are eligible.