Covered California Announces 2023 Plan Rates: Lower Than National Average Amid Uncertain Future of American Rescue Plan Benefits
California’s individual market will see a preliminary rate increase of 6 percent in 2023, due in part to the return of normal medical trends that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertain future of the American Rescue Plan.
Despite the uncertainty, the rate change is below the national average thanks to Covered California’s 1.7 million enrollees and the state’s healthy consumer pool, which remains among the best in the nation.
Covered California also announced that a 13th carrier would join the marketplace, and an existing carrier would expand to become the second one to offer statewide coverage.
All Californians will have two or more choice of carriers, 93 percent will be able to choose from three or more, and 81 percent will have four or more choices.
ALBANY, N.Y. (July 11, 2022) – NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace, today released Health Insurance Coverage Update: Impact of ARPA Subsidies. The enrollment report, which compares data from March 2020 to May 2022, describes how millions of New Yorkers have benefitted from access to affordable, comprehensive coverage through the Marketplace thanks to flexibilities permitted during the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) and ARPA premium subsidies. Currently, federal enhanced subsidies do not extend into 2023 and New York’s uninsured rate is expected to rise, reversing the progress in insurance coverage made since the start of the pandemic.
Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.
So let me be clear: If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment. My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: The opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and his staff told Democratic leadership on Thursday that he's not willing to support major climate and tax provisions in a sweeping Biden agenda bill, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations.
Instead, Manchin, a key centrist who holds the swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, said he is willing to back only a filibuster-proof economic bill with drug pricing and a two-year extension of funding under the Affordable Care Act, the source said.
Manchin's move upends lengthy negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., most likely forcing the party to scrap climate change policies and new taxes and delivering a major blow to some of President Joe Biden's priorities heading into an already challenging midterm election landscape for Democrats this fall.
With Congress scheduled to recess at the end of July, and health insurance marketplaces finalizing their rates for the 2023 coverage year, timely action to decide on the future of the American Rescue Plan’s benefits is critical.
The law, which provides increased and expanded federal financial assistance and helped millions of Americans sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, is set to expire at the end of this year.
An estimated 220,000 Californians could become uninsured, with premiums doubling for 1 million low-income consumers.
Middle-income consumers would lose all federal financial help, and their premiums would increase by an average of $272 per month if Congress does not act to extend the law.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) is gauging support among House centrists for a counteroffer to the emerging Senate reconciliation package, with one big clause: No new taxes.
Why it matters: Any attempt to modify a deal that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may reach with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) could scuttle the entire package. That could deprive President Biden — and vulnerable lawmakers — of a pre-election win at a time of real weakness.
Gottheimer's discussions target a small group that includes Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Susie Lee (D-Nev.) Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.).
...Gottheimer's formula would leave $177 billion for deficit reduction — a step toward Manchin but a long way from his roughly $500 billion target.
...After declaring Biden’s original $2.2 trillion social spending and climate package dead last December, Manchin revived talks with Schumer on a much smaller deal this spring, and the two sides are continuing their negotiations.
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, Sword of Damocles dangling over the. head of extending the enhanced premium subsidies temporarily included as part of the American Rescue Plan has been circling the runway in an on-again, off-again pattern for the past month or two.
I know I mangled several metaphors there, but the bottom line is that it's starting to look like Senate Democrats may end up bringing it in for a landing after all. Yesterday, via Benjy Sarlin & Sahil Kapur of NBC News:
Manchin weighs options for extending ACA funding to avert premium hikes
(sigh) The Sword of Damocles continues to dangle over the head of the Affordable Care Act. This time it isn't about an existential threat to the PPACA, at least...but the expanded/enhanced subsidies which were put into place temporarily by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) are definitely at risk.
Conversations are underway between Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer to negotiate a budget reconciliation bill, which would require only a simple majority for passage, that would meet Manchin’s demands without losing support from other Democrats.
...Another Manchin condition is that the measure avoid any “cliffs” that sunset new programs early to keep the price tag down, something Manchin argues artificially hides the true costs since programs will prove too popular not to extend.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday (June 16) that budget reconciliation legislation might not extend an increase in subsidies for health exchange insurance premiums; the subsidies are needed to avert a spike in Obamacare insurance rates right before the midterm elections.
...When a Punchbowl News reporter asked Thursday about that meeting and whether a reconciliation deal is expected soon, Pelosi’s response was, “It’s alive.”
“There are certain concerns we have about subsidies in the health care bill and the rest, which may or may not be in the negotiations,” she said.
...President Joe Biden included drug pricing reform in an inflation-fighting proposal released over the weekend -- but his plan did not mention the enhanced ACA credits, raising some eyebrows.
..Democrats had counted on drug price controls to pay for the enhanced ACA subsidies, but Manchin recently said the subsidies did not come up in his talks with the White House.
Over the past few months, this site and numerous other healthcare policy outlets have been sounding the alarm over the ugly fallout if the expanded ACA subsidies put into place by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) last year are allowed to expire:
