Tennessee's preliminary 2024 individual & small group market health insurance rate filings are now available, including actual enrollment numbers, which allows me to run weighted averages for both markets.
For the most part they're fairly straightforward: The individual market is looking at average rate increases of around 4.8%, while the small group market averages around +7.8% overall.
UPDATE 10/02/23: Well, all of Tennessee's filings appear to have been approved as is by the state regulatory department...they all say "approved" at the SERFF database and the newest filing versions all predate the original publication of this blog post from 8/17, so I'm concluding the preliminary rates are also the final rates.
Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.
Earlier today I noted that according to the most recent Medicare enrollment report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare Advantage enrollment--in which a private insurance carrier is paid by the federal government to administer Medicare benefits, and which differs in some important ways from "traditional" or "Fee for Service" Medicare--is on the verge of overtaking traditional Medicare in terms of total enrollment.
As of May 2023, 48.5% of all Medicare enrollees were covered via a Medicare Advantage plan, a percentage which has been steadily increasing over the years (it was only at 35.5% as of 2019).
While I mention this every time I post about the latest Medicare enrollment report, it's been some time since I've checked on the traditional vs. privately administered variants of Medicaid enrollees. For a long time I've been under the impression that roughly 70% of Medicaid enrollment was handled via Managed Care Organizations (MCOs):
In May 2023, 93,815,749 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
86,783,676 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid in May 2023, a decrease of 279,373 individuals (-0.3%) from April 2023.
7,032,073 individuals were enrolled in CHIP in May 2023, a decrease of 41,687 individuals (0.6%) from April 2023
As of May 2023, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has decreased by 61,085 since March 2023, the final month of the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.
Medicaid enrollment has increased by 69,102 individuals (0.1%).
CHIP enrollment has decreased by 130,187 individuals (1.8%)
Between February 2020 and March 2023, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP increased by 23,001,765 individuals (32.5%) to 93,876,834.
Medicaid enrollment increased by 22,634,781 individuals (35.3%).
CHIP enrollment increased by 366,984 individuals (5.4%)
Builds on President Biden’s Historic Commitment to Create a Long-Term Care System Where People Can Live with Dignity
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a proposed rule that seeks to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes—including, for the first time, national minimum nurse staffing standards—to ensure access to safe, high-quality care for the over 1.2 million residents living in nursing homes each day. This proposed rule builds on the President’s historic Action Plan for Nursing Home Reform launched in the 2022 State of the Union.
These free, in-person events will take place in Litchfield, New Britain, Vernon and Willimantic
HARTFORD, Conn. (Aug. 30, 2023) — Access Health CT (AHCT) can help eligible Connecticut residents enroll in HUSKY Health, the state’s Medicaid program, and Qualified Health Plans. To help residents understand the types of health coverage available to them, AHCT will host free, in-person enrollment fairs in September and October. Many HUSKY Health clients have been affected by “Medicaid Unwinding,” a term the federal government is using to describe the process of resuming reviewing households for Medicaid eligibility after a three-year break during the Public Health Emergency. The eligibility redetermination process resumed April 1 and HUSKY clients will be notified when it is their turn to enroll.
Back in June, the New York Department of Financial Services published the preliminary annual rate filings for both the individual and small group health insurance markets. At the time, the NY DFS put the weighted average rate increases on the ACA-compliant individual market at 20.9% statewide, although my own calculations based on the officially-reported market share enrollment came in slightly lower, at 20.7%.
Meanwhile, they put small group market, NY DFS put it at a 15.3% average increase (almost identical to my 15.4%).
However, I made sure to include an important caveat:
It's important to remember that these are not final rate increases--New York in particular has a tendency to slash the requested rate hikes down significantly before approving them.
As the Writers Guild of America's ongoing strike enters its fifth month (and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, approaches 50 days with their own strike for similar demands), Jackie Fortier has an interesting article at NPR about one of the less-discussed aspects which is often much higher profile in union strikes: Health insurance:
The health insurance offered by both unions is predicated on the notion that it is for members who work consistently and lucratively enough to make a minimum amount of money.
...the policy offered by the screenwriters guild, for instance, feels like a holdover from a bygone age. It has no monthly premiums, costs $600 per year to cover the rest of your immediate family and has deductibles that are in the hundreds – not thousands – of dollars.
At the time, the weighted average rate increases requested by insurance carriers in Maine were a steep 17.9% hike for the individual market and a 15.8% increase on the small group market.
CMS Takes Action to Protect Health Care Coverage for Children and Families
States must assess and fix their systems so eligible children and families can stay covered.
Today, and as part of its ongoing work to make sure all Americans have access to health care coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islandsrequiring them to determine whether they have an eligibility systems issue that could cause people, especially children, to be disenrolled from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) even if they are still eligible for coverage, and requiring them to immediately act to correct the problem and reinstate coverage.
