why are my premiums going up?

     Apparently Obamacare, as the current health-insurance overhaul legislation is known to the cognoscenti, is a harbinger of the End of Days. Around here, of course, we thought the new sitcom with Robin Williams was enough of a portent, but folks need ever more dramatic reasons to believe the meteor is about to hit the earth. So, many ask with a combination of innocent wonder and bloodthirsty rage, Why the hell are my premiums going up? 
     The answer to that is quite simple: the elimination of underwriting for pre-existing conditions drives up the cost of claims and, thus, premiums bolt through the stratosphere. 

     The insurance companies are actually in a pickle. (Yes, among absurdity upon absurdity, the Current Madness makes insurance companies sympathetic.) The majority of Americans support the elimination of those restrictions, but don't connect claims and costs. The companies you see are required by law to have enough cash on hand to cover claims...
     I can see your eyes glazing over, but please bear with me. All premiums paid to a company for health plans go into a general fund, which is then quite conservatively invested so as to grow the fund from year to year. This becomes a vast sum of cash that the company can draw upon to cover claims. They do this, dear reader, because the law of the land requires it. Therefore, if they can't do underwriting, they must raise the cash to cover the projected flood of diabetics and terminal cases. 

     This is also the reason why everyone has to buy insurance. Consider an employer's group plan - there are no health questions because most everyone will enroll. Thus the plan draws from a decent population, allowing the premiums paid for healthy people to cover the claims of the sick people. Even then, however, there is often a buffer period before certain conditions can be claimed. Still, after that the conditions are covered no questions asked. Just so, requiring that all Americans purchase health insurance creates an enormous Group, allowing companies to eliminate health underwriting and simply cover anyone who stumbles along regardless of their pre-existing conditions.

     By the by, our Chief Justice was right - the fine for those who refuse to buy insurance certainly is a tax. How can it possibly be construed as a tax? Lessee, it's designed to raise revenue to cover costs of claims. See? It raises revenue, therefore it's a tax. QED. O, and that revenue is for federal subsidies intended to offset the inevitably higher premiums everyone will have to pay for private health insurance plans. Leave that for another day.

     Where does that leave us, my only friends? Whether we like it or not, as long as people demand that insurance companies eliminate underwriting for pre-existing conditions, health insurance premiums will remain ridiculously high, and that individual mandate must hold. 

     So, to answer your question as succinctly as possible, your premiums are so high because you got what you wanted. 

     Take the win, and have a nice day.