President Barack Obama has urged state officials to cut back on big rate increases that are being requested by health insurance companies for 2016 in order to avoid more uproar over the Affordable Care Act.

However, Obama's call for aggressive regulation on insurer rates could backfire and lead to a clash between federal officials and insurers. Some carriers argue that the new public marketplaces cost them money since they ended up paying out more in claims than they collected in premiums last year. Some health plans discovered that new customers were sicker than expected, and have subsequently sought increases of up to 40 percent or more.

According to the New York Times, "Administration officials have political and financial reasons for wanting to hold down premiums. Big rate increases could undermine public support for the health care law, provide ammunition to Republican critics of the measure and increase costs for some consumers and the federal government."

Meanwhile, insurance companies have begun announcing rate increases for the health care plans they will offer in 2016.

In response, Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, issued a letter urging states to consider a range of factors before making their decisions.

"Recent claims data show healthier consumers," reads Counihan's letter to state insurance commissioners. The federal tax penalty for going without insurance will increase in 2016, he said, and this "should motivate a new segment of uninsured who may not have a high need for health care to enroll for coverage."

In addition, federal officials said much of the demand for health care has been met because consumers who enrolled last year have received treatments that they could not afford when they lacked insurance.

However, But Scott Keefer, a vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, said, "our claims experience has not slowed at all. The trend has gotten a little worse than we expected."