Health Net

In a boost for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, two states in the Northwest said on Friday that insurance companies submitted applications to sell policies on the states' health insurance exchanges at rates well below what some insurance executives had predicted.The insurance marketplaces are a key element of the reform law, which is due to take full effect in 2014. A core principle of these exchanges is that competition, along with government subsidies and other measures, will keep rates affordable.The sweeping reform known as Obamacare seeks to extend health insurance to many of the 49 million Americans without it, and alter how care is delivered so as to curb what has been an inexorable rise in healthcare spending. Congressional Republicans who oppose the law had warned that high premiums would sink Obamacare as the uninsured would not be able to afford coverage even with federal subsidies.As of Thursday, nine insurers had notified the Washington Healthplanfinder, the...

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