OVERNIGHT HEALTHCARE: Insurers see ObamaCare hikes in 2016

Health insurers across the country are eyeing slightly steeper cost increases in 2016, a year that will be an important test for how well ObamaCare is working.

The costs of the lowest-tiered individual plans appear to be ticking up, according to multiple experts who have reviewed the proposed rates. The increases vary wildly among plans and among states, but experts say people are still unlikely to face the kind of doomsday scenario critics predicted would occur under the healthcare law.

“The trend is a little bit higher this year than last year,” said Gary Claxton, director of the healthcare marketplace program for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

{mosads}And as in past years, some of those rate increases have been “enormous,” said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, who directs the private insurance program at nonprofit group Families USA.

Under ObamaCare, all proposed rate hikes above 10 percent were required to be posted online by Monday. Now begins a six-month back-and-forth between insurance companies and regulators as the government tries to reduce rates before locking them in this November.

This year’s filing season will be the first time insurers can fully review claims data before deciding what to charge, so the proposed hikes offer new clues about ObamaCare’s success in bringing a diverse group of people onto insurance rolls. Read more here. 

LONGER WAIT FOR FULL KING V. BURWELL PLAN: House Republicans will hold off on releasing legislative language for their King v. Burwell plan until after the court’s ruling, a top aide said Monday.

“We’ll have a plan that will be public before the ruling, but given that we don’t know exactly what they’ll say, we’ll have to wait for the ruling to have text to align with the situation,” said Brendan Buck, spokesperson for Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Ryan – who is one of three GOP chairmen leading the House’s effort – told reporters in March that he planned to have a bill ready and priced by the decision. Now it looks like those details won’t be public until after the ruling.

Buck declined to say whether the bill would be fully scored by the time of the decision, but said work with the Congressional Budget Office “has been ongoing for months.” Read more here.

JUDGE HAS MORE QUESTIONS FOR OBAMA ON GOP LAWSUIT: A federal judge who is hearing a lawsuit from House Republicans against President Obama is requesting more information about a funding dispute at the center of the case.

Judge Rosemary Collyer, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, asked for both sides to meet and submit a record of the requests and funding decisions last year around certain ObamaCare programs.

Collyer appeared skeptical last week of the administration’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, which House Republicans brought forward to challenge Obama’s use of executive power.

During arguments, Collyer had pressed Justice Department attorney Joel McElvain about the facts of the spending dispute, indicating that there could be harm to the House if the administration had ignored its funding decisions.

“I want to know where you find the appropriation,” Collyer asked McElvain last week. Read more here.

Tuesday’s schedule

The White House will host more than 100 healthcare groups for the Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing about combating fraud in the Medicaid program at 10:15 a.m.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a markup of several healthcare bills, including a repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board.

State by state

Lawmakers pay $5.1 million in premiums, get $13.6 million in care

Texas politicians and businesses feud over Medicaid expansion

Florida kicks off emergency session to end Medicare stalemate

What we’re reading

Supreme Court to decide whether to plunge back into abortion debate

Healthcare spending billions to protect the records it spent billions to install

What you might have missed from The Hill

White House: No ‘easy fix‘ for ObamaCare court ruling

Early clues to ObamaCare’s impact

Please send tips and comments to Sarah Ferris, sferris@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Peter Sullivan, psullivan@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @PeterSullivan4