Furthermore, the administration has put in place new rules aimed at reducing the number of people who sign up for PPACA policies past the open enrollment deadline. Insurers have claimed that those who take advantage of the “special enrollment” provisions tend to cost more, perhaps because some of them are waiting until they need health care services to sign up for plans.

It’s very likely, however, that insurers will cope with their current struggles by raising premiums. Faced with proposed rate hikes by insurers, the Obama administration will find itself torn between competing political considerations. It wants to keep premiums low to make the marketplace as popular as possible, but it can’t afford to have insurers ditch the marketplace entirely.

If insurers raise premiums substantially, that does not necessarily mean that policyholders will be paying much more for their plans. Since 85 percent of marketplace enrollees receive some level of subsidy to buy their plan, higher premiums might be paid largely by the feds.

"(I)t's clear that this is a growing business for insurers, and it's a product consumers want and need,” Ben Wakana, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN Money.