2019 Rate Hike Project Wrap-up: FINAL/APPROVED rate changes for Nebraska

I realize this may seem a bit late in the game seeing how the 2019 ACA Open Enrollment Period has already started, but I do like to be as complete and thorough as possible, and there were still 9 states missing final/approved premium rate change analyses as of yesterday which I wanted to check off my 2019 Rate Hike Project list.

Fortunately, RateReview.HealthCare.Gov has finally updated their database to include the approved rate changes for every state, which made it easy to take care of most of these.

Nebraska has a slightly confusing siutation, which is surprising since Medica is the only carrier offering ACA policies in the state, When I first took a look at the requested premium changes for 2019 back in August, it looked like the average was around 1.0%...that was based on splitting the difference between the 3.69% and -2.60% listings, since the filing form was redacted and I didn't know what the relative market split was between Medica's product lines.

However, when I took another look today, while Medica is still the only carrier in the database, they now have four product lines listed...two of which are the originals (which don't have final/approved rates posted yet), plus two new ones which are approved:

...not that this really matters, since the actual rate filing states that it's 2.2% across all four lines. I figured out how to "un-redact" the relevant portion of the filing form by simply copying & pasting the text into Word:

So...Nebraska is among the very rare states where I have to increase their 2019 average rate change more than I previously had it pegged at. Fortunately, it's only increasing from 1% to 2.2%. Unfortunately, the mandate repeal + #ShortAssPlans expansion still means unsubsidized enrollees will have to pay over $1,000 more next year than they'd otherwise have to.

Advertisement