Obamacare Sending Insurance Premiums Soaring

"A recent survey of 148 insurance brokers shows that ObamaCare is sending premiums rising at the fastest clip in decades," writes Jim Angle, a national reporter for Fox News.

Rates vary widely, often depending on the state and how highly regulated it was to begin with. Analysts, however, say the main reasons for the higher costs are not medical inflation, but rather the requirements of ObamaCare itself.

"There are certain regulations and certain requirements that had to be in there. And because of that it's driven up the costs of these benefits," said John DiVito of the Flexible Benefit Service Corporation, which represents hundreds of agents.Rate hikes include ten essential health benefits along with more than 20,000 pages or regulations.

The reported hikes are for the first policies issued under ObamaCare in 2014.

The Morgan Stanley quarterly survey across all states found an average national premium increase of 11 percent in the small group market and 12 percent in the individual market.

But all states are not equal. Scott Gottlieb notes that some states show increases 10 to 50 times that amount:

For the individual insurance market (plans sold directly to consumers); among the ten states seeing some of the sharpest average increases are: Delaware at 100%, New Hampshire 90%, Indiana 54%, California 53%, Connecticut 45%, Michigan 36%, Florida 37%, Georgia 29%, Kentucky 29%, and Pennsylvania 28%.