By John Tozzi.

Alarming predictions that the premiums for individual health plans would skyrocket in the first year of Obamacare turned out to be largely unfounded. But the roughly 8 million people who bought insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges may suffer some sticker shock as they begin using their benefits.

That’s because many of the plans make consumers shoulder a lot of the costs of their medical care through deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance—payments the newly insured may not have grasped when they signed up. Research suggests that most people don’t understand those terms.

“Most people, as soon as they have health-care coverage, they expect to go to the drug store and pay whatever their co-pay is for their prescription, not have to meet a deductible,” says Gina Boscarino, senior policy director at Breakaway Policies. She helped produce a new report (pdf) with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examining the new health plans.

Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: USA Today Money

By Matt Krantz.

Companies find all sorts of excuses during earnings season for disappointments, with the weather being an all-time favorite. But some companies are finding a new scapegoat: Obamacare.

Thirty companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500, including United Parcel Service, General Electric and retailer Dollar General, have mentioned the Affordable Care Act during their conference calls since March 1 and all through the first-quarter earnings season, says John Butters, analyst at financial data research firm FactSet. That’s a healthy cross section of companies if you consider that so far, 446 companies in the S&P 500 have reported first-quarter results.

Exactly half the companies that mentioned the Act are in the healthcare industry, where there’s a direct interaction with the new law. But in the other half, companies ranging from many industries discussed the fallout of the Affordable Care Act on their business.

Most of the companies talking about the law did so negatively, pointing out how it either hurts demand for their business or causes costs to increase. “There are legitimate complaints,” says Kip Piper, an independent consultant that advises companies on health-care plans. “The ACA does impose costs and obligations that cost money.”

Some companies are pointing to the Affordable Care Act for driving up insurance costs. And this comes as health-care spending rose at an annual rate of 9.9% last quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says, the fastest rate of increase since 1980. But others are saying that the new law is affecting demand for its products…

Read more from this story HERE.