Did health care reform cause premiums to rise?

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported health care premiums rose 9 percent in 2011, a report that is likely to generate a lot of talk on if the health care reform act of 2009-2010 had anything to do with it.

The short answer is yes, but only 1 to 2 percent of the total premium increase, according to Kaiser. Premiums would have increased 7 percent anyway.

On the other side of the coin, White House analysts say premiums only went up because insurers overestimated the cost of the new health care reform act. (They produce figures to back it up like health care worker wages were lowest increase in years), and they argue, average health care insurer company earnings exceeded estimates by 45 percent.

There's a solid article on this, giving both sides good weight, in The Christian Science Monitor here.

My own take: I tend to agree that if insuror premiums are way higher than they expected, they built in a little too much cost expectation. Seems plausible.

The only two provisions that the report says impacted the premiums were adding college kids at 26 or under to parent's plans and requirements for some preventative care, both of which should actually help lower costs. (Adding kids because most are extremely health and don't use health care though their parents are now paying extra premiums for them)

Preventive care should help stop a sickness from getting serious and costing more.