The health insurance exchanges were meant to lower premiums through competition. So what happened this year?

It’s sign up season for the Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment starts on Wednesday. Government numbers out today show that almost half of the population live in places where they can only choose from three or fewer insurers. Not much competition, so you’d expect premiums to be high. But in other places, there’s seven, eight or even 10 insurers in the market, and premiums have still gone up considerably. Why exactly? Seems this year insurers aren’t necessarily looking at each other to set premium prices.  

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