Wyoming ACA provider seeks almost 50-percent rate hike

The lone provider of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act in Wyoming is proposing to raise rates for those customers by almost 50 percent.

Blue Cross Blue Shield spokeswoman Wendy Curran says the company is nervous about proposed changes to the health care law.

She tells Wyoming Public Radio (http://bit.ly/2u83tVc ) the insurer is particularly concerned about threats to remove government subsidies for lower-income enrollees. The subsidies reduce the amount participants pay for deductibles, co-pays and premiums.

Some 28,000 people are covered through the Affordable Care Act in Wyoming.

Curran says doing away with the requirement for everybody to be insured would drive up costs because many healthy people would forego coverage.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services would need to approve the rate hike.