Paul Levy, former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the blog Not Running a Hospital, wrote a post comparing his health plan costs under Massachusetts' Health Connector and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Levy's Blue Cross Blue Shield plan under the Health Connector, which was created under the state's healthcare reform in 2006, is available through March 2014, when the PPACA rates will kick in. He pays a monthly premium of $1,421, but that will grow to $2,002 under the PPACA.
Mr. Levy posted a chart comparing the costs of each plan. "To summarize, for $600 more per month, my copay for almost everything goes up," he wrote. "My share of an inpatient admission or outpatient surgery goes up 233 percent; a CT or MRI goes up 500 percent; and ED visits are double the cost." 
The plan under PPACA does provide an out-of-pocket maximum of $3,000, but Mr. Levy will still have to pay $7,200 extra for that protection from the $600 more toward his premium per month. "To break even, I would have to spend $10,200 in out-of-pocket items under the Massachusetts plan," he wrote.
Some experts have attributed the rate increases to insurers hiking up rates as they take on more customers with pre-existing conditions, but Mr. Levy said that's not so in Massachusetts. Excluding people with pre-existing conditions has been outlawed for years in the state.
He instead thinks the uptick in costs has to do with the definitions of group and individual plans, as well as premium rating factors that BCBS is required to use under the PPACA. He also said BCBS' plan is less expensive than those offered by other insurers, suggesting some competition seems to exist.
"I'm also happy to pay my fair share," wrote Mr. Levy. "In particular, I have no problem at all with having my tax money used to help subsidize those who cannot afford insurance. But, jeez, couldn't you have kept my monthly premium rate increase to something less than 40 percent?"
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