Bethany Bump reports for the Albany Times Union that health insurance premiums will rise around 8.6 percent in 2019 for New Yorkers purchasing their coverage through the individual market. Insurance companies had requested a 24 percent average individual rate hike next year. Insurance companies claimed they are forced to raise rates because of the impending federal repeal of the individual mandate. That part of the Affordable Health Care Act required consumers to purchase insurance or pay a penalty. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the state Department of Financial Services to reject any rate increase attributed to the repeal. "DFS will not allow the federal government's wrongful repeal of the individual mandate penalty to become a self-fulfilling prophecy to make health insurance unaffordable in New York," said Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo. Read the full story, including the specific rate increases for 14 companies, at the Albany Times Union website.