Illinois: Preliminary avg. unsubsidized 2025 #ACA rate changes: +4.6%

Last May, I noted that the Illinois state legislature had passed a law which made my heart sing:

• Amends the Department of Insurance Law.
• Provides that beginning before or on May 1, 2026, and each May 1 thereafter, the Department of Insurance shall report to the Governor and the General Assembly on health insurance coverage, affordability, and cost trends.
• Amends the Illinois Insurance Code.
• Provides that any forms and rates filed for large employer group accident and health insurance shall be automatically deemed approved after 90 days after filing.
• Provides that beginning plan year 2026, rate increases for all individual and small group accident and health insurance policies must be filed with the Department for approval.
• Provides that unreasonable rate increases or inadequate rates shall be modified or disapproved.
• Provides that beginning plan year 2025, the Department shall post all insurers' rate filings and summaries on the Department's website.
• Provides that the Department shall open a 30-day public comment period on the date that a rate filing is posted on the website.
• Provides that after the close of the public comment period, the Department shall issue a decision to approve, disapprove, or modify a rate filing within 60 days, and post the decision on the Department's website.
• Provides that the Department shall adopt rules implementing specified procedures.
• Defines terms.
• Makes conforming changes in the Health Maintenance Organization Act and the Limited Health Service Organization Act.

Lo and behold, when I checked the Illinois Insurance Dept's website today to see what their preliminary 2025 rate filings look like, I found a completely overhauled interface including exactly that:

Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Illinois Rate Filings

The chart below contains proposed rates for Plan Year 2025, which will be reviewed for compliance with federal and state requirements. Final rates will be posted below prior to the beginning of the ACA Marketplace Open Enrollment Period on November 1, 2024. 

If you would like to make a public comment regarding proposed ACA individual and small group rate filings during the 30-day comment period, fill out this form.

ACA Proposed Rates - Public Comment Form

UPDATE: The public comment period has been extended through July 27, 2024.

Considering that the Illinois insurance website used to be one of the most confusing & outdated state insurance dept sites I've had to deal with, this is a vast improvement.

The only complaint I really have is that while the actual rate filings are linked to directly, they're also partially redacted, and only include the actual number of covered lives for some of the insurance carriers. In other cases I've had to use estimated policy enrollee totals based on the number of policyholders (the ACA individual market typically has around 1.4 covered lives per policy on average).

Assuming these are all fairly accurate, the overall weighted average rate increase being requested by Illinois insurance carriers for the individual market in 2025 is around 4.6%.

For the small group market, unfortunately, I don't know what the average enrollment per policyholder is, so I can't even come up with a weighted average, although the unweighted average rate hike being pushed for is 9.5%.