Rate hikes likely with health care reform - Redlands Daily Facts

Rate hikes likely with health care reform - Redlands Daily Facts: "A few years ago when Raul Holgun was diagnosed with diabetes, his insurance doubled from $1,500 to $3,000 monthly.

Holgun, who owned a business in Highland at that time, had no choice: The policy had to be canceled.

Before the passage of the health care reform legislation last month, it would be at the very least difficult, if not impossible, for Holgun, now 61, to get health insurance.

But the powerful force of health care reform that will keep others from experiencing what Holgun did will also add fresh fuel to the already raging wildfire of health care costs.

You'll feel the strength of those flames when you see the costs for next year's health care coverage.

'I'd be very surprised if we were not looking at a double-digit increase' for company-provided health care insurance next year, said Jay Prag, an economics professor in the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

And those increases are likely to be passed down to employees, Prag said.

There's another unintended consequence of health care reform smoldering in the business community: uncertainty.

Just as some Southern California companies are beginning to feel their way out of the recession, the sweeping health care proposal has introduced another unknown factor into their decision- making equations."