District of Columbia: 2015 premium increase only 2.3% (unweighted)
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 11:37am
Unfortunately, I don't know the market share breakdown, so I can't do a weighted average, but the DC Health Link exchange rates for 2015 have been released, and the unweighted average is only a 2.3% increase for the individual market. For the SHOP (small business) exchange the news is even better...a decrease of over 2% (again, unweighted). The SHOP rates carry a lot more heft in DC than in most states due to the unique rules in place there (like Vermont, all individual enrollment has to be done via the ACA exchange, and all Congressional staffers are required to enroll via the DC SHOP system):
The D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking today announced the approved health insurance plan rates for the District of Columbia’s health insurance marketplace, DC Health Link, for plan year 2015.
Eight carriers through four major insurance companies – Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare – will have plan offerings for individuals, families and small businesses on DC Health Link when enrollment opens Nov. 15, 2014.
As usual, the approved rates are considerably more favorable to consumers than the original requested rates:
| Insurance Carrier | Requested Change | Approved Change | ||
| Individual | Small Group | Individual | Small Group | |
| CareFirst HMO | 13.4% | 12.9% | 7.6% | 12.7% |
| CareFirst PPO | 12.1% | 12.1% | 5.5% | 10.5% |
| Aetna HMO | n/a | 1.3% | n/a | -2.8% |
| Aetna PPO | -0.2% | -13.7% | -6.1% | -17.2% |
| UnitedHealthcare PPO | n/a | -8.0% | n/a | -13.0% |
| UnitedHealthcare HMO (Optimum) | n/a | -8.0% | n/a | -13.0% |
| UnitedHealthcare HMO (Mid-Atlantic) | n/a | (new) | n/a | -0.3% |
| Kaiser Permanente HMO | 2.2% | 6.8% | 2.2% | 6.8% |
Forty-one new plans are available for 2015; all in the small group or “SHOP” market with the exception of one individual plan. UnitedHealthcare and Aetna also eliminated some plans that had little or no enrollment in 2014, resulting in a total of 227 plans for sale on DC Health Link for 2015 (31 plans for individuals and 196 small group plans), compared to the 301 plans offered for 2014 (34 individuals and 267 small group plans).
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