Health insurers face key Obamacare deadline Wednesday

Insurers face a key deadline Wednesday to finalize contracts with states about how much they will charge customers who buy Obamacare plans.

Many of the largest insurers have decided not to sell plans on Obamacare's exchanges at all, and many of those that are staying have filed rate increase proposals in the double digits. Those increases could go higher without payments the insurers expect to receive from the federal government, called cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Insurers say the pullouts and premium hikes are a result of uncertainty about the future of the healthcare law and financial losses.

The Trump administration has the authority to move the Sept. 27 deadline back, but it has not changed, according to a spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services.

In some states, insurers have filed several rate requests to account for various sets of assumptions, including whether they can expect funding from the federal government and to what extent the government will enforce Obamacare's individual mandate that requires people to buy insurance or pay a fine.

"While final rates have been filed, our assumption is everyone will work to be flexible if we can all agree on a good solution for the American people," a health insurance industry expert said.