The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS) released a report on October 14 outlining possible effects of health care reform legislation, including estimating that the legislation would increase the price of average annual medical claims for individual policies by 50% in five years.   

From the report:

Insurance reforms alone will substantially increase claims costs in the individual market. The individual market “risk pool” will be less healthy than today and will drive higher insurance premiums. We estimate the average medical claims for the uninsured are 20 percent higher than claims in the current individual market. In addition, certain segments with high medical utilization who are now insured through other arrangements will enter the individual market as a result of guaranteed issue and modified community rating requirements. This includes people enrolled in state high risk pools, people on COBRA through their former employers’ coverage, and other group conversion policies.

Full report:  Insurance Reforms Must Include a Strong Individual Mandate and Other Key Provisions to Ensure Affordability (PDF | 539.72 KB)

Blue Cross Blue Shield. (2009). Insurance reforms must include a strong individual mandate and other key provisions to ensure affordability. Wyman, Oliver.