HHS: Obamacare Premiums to Go Up Next Year

The Obama administration acknowledged Thursday that premiums for the most popular type of health care plan are rising an average of 5 percent in many states this year, and will rise another 5 percent in 2015.

Those who enrolled last year will be automatically re-enrolled in the same plan. But their premiums will likely be more expensive.

The administration is encouraging people to shop for new plans.

"In today's marketplace, [insurers] are competing for business," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement. "Returning customers may find an even better deal if they shop and save."

Many people are worried the rising trend will continue. Republicans panned the announcement as further proof that Obamacare is a failure.

"This is yet another broken promise from this administration, who famously touted lower premiums under Obamacare. We now know that simply wasn't true," House Oversight Committee Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told the Free Beacon.

Sen.-elect Tom Cotton, R-Ark., agreed, calling the law a "bait and switch."

"The Obama administration seems to have pulled the ultimate bait and switch. What's worse, both they and insurance companies knew this would happen all along, yet provided no warning," Cotton said.

"Now hundreds of thousands of Americans are about to learn the hard way that Obamacare isn't what the president promised it would be," he continued.

"Obamacare is an unworkable law, and today's announcement underscores the need for actual free-market reforms to our healthcare system that would increase competition and lower costs," he said.

Meanwhile, the administration is hoping to have 9.1 million people enrolled in 2015, including most of the current 6.7 million customers.