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Insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans are likely to jump by 35 to 94 percent around the country within the next three years, according to a new report concluding that recent federal decisions will have a profound effect on prices. The nationwide analysis, issued Thursday by California’s insurance marketplace, finds wide variations state to state, with a broad swath of the South and parts of the Midwest in danger of what the report calls “catastrophic” average rate increases by 2021. (Goldstein, 3/8)

Beginning in 2019, premiums increases could range from 12 to 32 percent in the U.S. Cumulatively, states could see increases ranging from 35 to 90 percent from 2019 to 2021. The report, released by California's insurance marketplace, estimates that states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Texas could see cumulative increases of 90 percent by 2021. Indiana, Illinois and Iowa could see increases of 50 percent in the same time period. “The challenges to our health care system are threatening to have real consequences for millions of Americans,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California. (Hellmann, 3/8)

Across the country, people who buy health insurance on exchanges could see their premiums rise between 12 and 32 percent in 2019, according to an analysis released Thursday by Covered California, the state exchange that sells insurance to 1.2 million residents who don’t receive health coverage through their employers. (Ho, 3/8)

Kaiser Health News: A Health Plan ‘Down Payment’ Is One Way States Try Retooling Individual Mandate

As President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans tirelessly try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a number of states are scrambling to enact laws that safeguard its central provisions. The GOP tax plan approved by Congress in the last days of 2017 repealed the ACA penalty for people who fail to carry health insurance, a provision called the “individual mandate.” On Jan. 30, in Trump’s first State of the Union address, he claimed victory in killing off this part of the health law, saying Obamacare was effectively dead without it. (Bluth, 3/9)

A legislative committee aired two bills Thursday that would establish a state individual health care mandate and push back on Congress’s recent repeal of the Obamacare penalty, but the bills would impose radically different fines for those who fail to buy insurance coverage. (Rigg, 3/8)