Montana: *Final* avg. unsubsidized 2024 #ACA rate changes: +4.3% (unweighted; updated)

Originally posted 8/10/23; updated 11/07/23

The good news about the Montana Insurance Dept. is that once the final, approved annual rate changes for the individual and small group markets are released, they're pretty good about posting them in a clear, transparent manner.

The bad news is that they only do so for the final rates, not the preliminary/requested rate filings.

For that, I have to yet again rely on an unweighted average of the rate filings from the federal Rate Review website.

Montana only has three carriers on the indy market and four on the small group market. Of these, Montana Health Co-Op is providing their actual enrollment numbers for both, although one is in a roundabout way. For their individual market filing they state that:

The membership projections were developed based on 2023 enrollment and in conjunction with MHC's staff. Total member months projected for MHC in the 2024 Individual market is 277,188. The projections reflect the anticipated size of the 2024 individual market in Montana, both on and off the exchange, and market share anticipated by MHC's management.

277,188 member months / 12 = 23,099, give or take.

In any event, this still doesn't give enough information to run a weighted average, so the unweighted average requested increase on the individual market is 4.3% while it's 7.0% for small group carriers.

UPDATED 11/07/23: No changes were made to any of the requested rate changes in either market.