Health care premiums are rising, but the effect is concentrated on plans sold on Healthcare.gov and other exchanges.
In Illinois, premiums for insurance plans bought on the exchange are expected to go up this year. That's because several carriers left the marketplace, citing losses. Their absence means less competition. Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the state's largest insurance providers, could raise their rates by more than 50 percent.
But Wendy Epstein, a health law professor at DePaul University, says healthcare costs are increasing at a slower clip than prior to 2010, which marked the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
The Kaiser Family Foundation says employer-based insurance premiums rose by an average of three percent last year.
