Disparity in health insurance hikes

The self-employed, such as businessmen and farmers, as well as many retirees, have always struggled with high insurance premiums.  
Some of those proposed large increases for individual coverage may be offset by tax credits, but many don’t qualify for those.
On the other hand, premiums in employer-provided programs are only expected to increase 4 percent on average.
Insurance companies are saying that the individual market is just too small to spread out the costs of premiums, while the employer-provided market is much larger.
And, because of the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies are now required to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions. Health-care insurers say they have experienced huge losses in the individual policy market.
But Sarah Greenfield of Tax Action Minnesota argues that health insurance companies continue to experience overall profits, and questions whether the requested increases are justified.
“Those insurers and the HMOs are managing to do well,” Greenfield was quoted as saying by the Star Tribune, “but those folks in the individual private market are really getting squeezed.”
Once again, it seems that everyone is pointing the finger at someone else for our health-care woes — at the government, at the insurance providers and at the health-care providers.  
Although it is still very young, it would appear that the Affordable Care Act is not accomplishing its purpose of making affordable health care available to everyone. It’s a noble goal, but it’s not bearing out in reality.
It’s time to regroup and rethink the system. There has to be a better way.