The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday proposed a new guidance for 2015 aimed at expanding choices of doctors and hospitals on plans offered through the exchanges in President Obama’s health care law. But in an effort to answer one complaint of Obamacare, the proposed regulations could exacerbate another, by further driving up premiums.
Starting on Jan. 1, Obamacare imposed a raft of new regulations on insurance – such as requiring that insurers offer certain benefits and cover those with pre-existing conditions – that naturally made insurance more expensive. To contain the growth of premiums, insurers responded to the requirements by trimming the number of doctors and hospitals that were part of their networks of providers.
