Among the many hopes expressed for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was that it portended to slow the inexorable and exponential rise in health insurance premiums every year. Yet, in many states, it’s still business as usual. According to The New York Times, in California, Aetna proposed rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent in 2013—and there wasn’t a thing that the state insurance regulators could do about it. Other states have seen rates rise by at least 20 percent for some policyholders. These double-digit increases are hitting small businesses and the self-employed particularly hard.
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