Georgia requests emergency delay on health exchange | Online Athens

Georgia may not start its ObamaCare health exchange Oct. 1 when the rest of the country does because the state issued an emergency request late Monday for a delay.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens asked U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for another 30 days beyond today’s deadline to approve the health plans submitted by seven insurance companies wanting to do business in the state.

He said some rates were 198 percent higher than current plans available in the state.

“Georgia consumers cannot afford these massive rate increases,” Hudgens wrote in his letter to Sebelius.

In an interview with Morris News, Hudgens said that on Monday, he received the reports of outside actuaries hired to review the premiums requested by seven insurance companies wanting to offer individual health plans through the state’s exchange. Those actuaries concluded that six sought justifiable premiums and the seventh was 11 percent above what was necessary to comply with the requirements of the federal health reform law known as Obamacare.

via Georgia requests emergency delay on health exchange | Online Athens.