HEALTHCARE: In Some States, a Cost Crunch Over Expanded Health Benefits “President Barack Obama promised that his Affordable Care Act would work to reduce health costs. But a recent Kaiser Health News article outlined one way in which the law–and the way the administration and states have implemented it–is helping to increase costs. The issue surrounds benefit mandates at the state level, which require insurers offering policies in that state to cover a particular type of treatment, provider, or service. While many of these mandates may sound appealing, they incrementally raise the cost of insurance–for procedures that some people might ...