Health Premium Increases - NYTimes.com Re "U.S. Seeks Rollback of a Health Insurer's "Excessive" Rate Increase" (news article, Jan. 13): As a freelance writer and editor, I've paid my own health insurance costs since 1986. Even when I've been given staff jobs, my employers have insisted that I work part time so they won't have to pay benefits. When my old insurer wanted to raise my premium by 33 percent to more than $1,000 - even though I have no pre-existing conditions, diseases or other health problems - I shopped around and found a much more affordable plan. Then last year, this company also raised my premium by 33 percent. While the new health care law will require insurers to justify rates of more than 10 percent, my insurer has already scored a major slam dunk. If my premium goes up much more, I may have to join the uninsured and wait for Medicare to kick in five years from now.