Obamacare Premium Increases Likely In States With Key Senate Races

Politico reports that this could be bad news for Democrats who are running in Louisiana and Iowa -- both locations are experiencing double-digit rate hikes for individual health plans. In other news, Va. Senate candidate Ed Gillespie, a Republican, unveils a plan to replace the health law if it were to be repealed, and the New York Times take a close look at one Florida congressional contest.  

Politico: An Obamacare October Surprise?
Obamacare premiums aren’t rising everywhere. They just have a way of finding the states with the biggest Senate races. And that could be very bad timing for Democrats in two of the party’s key contests. Double-digit rate hikes for individual health insurance plans have become an issue in the Louisiana and Iowa Senate races over the past week, where the Republican candidates are hammering their Democratic opponents for the steep premium increases on the way next year for some customers under the Affordable Care Act (Nather, 10/12).

The Washington Post: Ed Gillespie, Senate Candidate In Va., Unveils Alternative To Affordable Care Act
Virginia Senate candidate Ed Gillespie unveiled a health-care reform proposal Friday, offering an alternative to a law he would like to see repealed. Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman who is challenging Sen. Mark R. Warner (D), has made opposition to the unpopular Affordable Care Act a cornerstone of his campaign. ... His plan would end the individual mandate to buy health insurance, the health-care exchanges and all of the law’s industry regulations. In their place, he would offer tax credits that increase with age and family size. ... In addition, under Gillespie’s proposal, family plans would no longer be required to cover young adults until age 26 (Weiner, 10/10).

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Gillespie Unveils Health Care Plan That Focuses On Tax Credits
Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, on Friday rolled out his long-awaited proposal for comprehensive health care reform to replace the Affordable Care Act — a plan that he said would reduce insurance premiums, enhance access to doctors, and increase the number of people with private insurance by 6 million more than Obamacare will (Schmidt, 10/10).

The New York Times: In Florida, A Chance For Democrats To Win One Back
But in an election season full of dire predictions for Democrats, the party is pinning one of its few genuine chances to reclaim a House seat on a little-known northwest Florida woman with a well-known name. Voters know her just as Gwen, but it is her last name, Graham, that resonates — a marquee Florida brand brimming with centrist political currency. And her father, Bob Graham, who was a popular longtime United States senator and governor, is usually by her side these days, chewing on pork at a fund-raiser, gobbling peanuts at a rally and extolling his eldest daughter’s pledge to put people before party as a Graham Democrat. … But Mr. Southerland, the 49-year-old co-owner of his family-run funeral home chain who co-founded a Panama City Tea Party group, has three powerful forces on his side: voters’ antipathy to President Obama, their deep-rooted opposition to his Affordable Health Care law and the growing inclination to vote Republican (Alvarez, 10/12).