Next Obamacare enrollment period faces bumps: U.S. official

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers who purchase private health coverage through the federal Obamacare website HealthCare.gov are likely to find only modestly higher premiums but may still have technical problems signing up, a top health official said on Thursday. "It won't be perfect," Andrew Slavitt, a newly appointed principal deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), told lawmakers at hearing before a House of Representatives oversight committee. Despite claims by Obamacare's foes that consumers would face double-digit cost increases for 2015, Slavitt said early indications from several states, including Rhode Island, Delaware and Washington, point to premium hikes in the mid-single digits. Slavitt was previously an executive at a government contractor working on the site and a leader of the rescue team that turned around HealthCare.gov in time to allow more than 5 million people in 36 states to obtain coverage.



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