Health expenses surge in Massachusetts

Consumers and businesses across Massachusetts will have to pay more for health care in 2016, as insurance rates rise at a faster clip and some premiums soar by double-digit rates, The Boston Globe reported.

At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s biggest commercial insurer, premiums will rise an average of 5 percent this year. Rates are set to increase between 3 percent and 7 percent at Tufts Health Plan, 6 percent to 12 percent at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and 9.5 percent on average at Fallon Health.

The jumps in premiums come as insurers pass on the costs of rising drug prices, insurers and analysts said, and grapple with the cost of expanding coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Most of the state’s major health insurers are sharply raising premiums for individuals, small firms and big businesses, according to a Globe review of figures provided by the insurers and the state Division of Insurance. •

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