EDGE Ft. Lauderdale

Brown University’s new student health plan coverage will cover 14 types of sexual reassignment surgeries for transgender students.

Eye-popping health insurance premium increases of up to 39 percent are not an exception but a worrisome sign of the times, the Obama administration said in a report Thursday.

Consumers in at least four states who buy their own health insurance are getting hit with premium increases of 15 percent or more - and people in other states could see the same thing.

To critics, a 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us. Not so, says the company, arguing the increase only hits a relatively small number of people and the economy is to blame