Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Health Insurers Warn on Premiums

By ANNA WILDE MATHEWS and LOUISE RADNOFSKY
Updated March 22, 2013, 8:04 a.m. ET

Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation's biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans.

The projections, made in sessions with brokers and agents, provide some of the most concrete evidence yet of how much insurance companies might increase prices when major provisions of the law kick in next year—a subject of rigorous debate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324557804578374761054496682.html

then you have

Business Heath Care Group says costs declined substantially in 10 years

By Guy Boulton of the Journal Sentinel
May 1, 2013 5:50 p.m.

The Business Health Care Group was created by 11 large employers 10 years in response to the Milwaukee area's having far higher health care costs than other cities in the Midwest.

The coalition, which now has 1,200 employers, is marking its 10th anniversary by noting that health care costs in southeast Wisconsin have fallen from an estimated 39% above the Midwest average to an estimated 7% above the Midwest average, based on the most recent analysis by the Greater Milwaukee Business Foundation on Health.

A significant factor was hospital costs in southeastern Wisconsin increasing at roughly half the national average rate from 2003 through 2011. Hospital care accounts for 30% to 40% of the total medical claims paid by commercial health plans.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/business-heath-care-group-says-costs-declined-substantially-in-10-years-269pu42-205680891.html

Doesn't take much to see the WSJ is a worry, and that healthcare costs are more or less defined by other than Obamacare.