I can't overstate how much I wish every state was as good as Pennsylvania is at not only making their annual rate filings publicly available on the state insurance dept. website, but doing so in such a clear, simple format, while also including a consistent summary page for every carrier!
As a result of this attention to transparency and detail, I was able to put together my Pennsylvania analysis pretty quickly even though they hae a huge number of carriers on both their individual and small group markets.
Insurance Department Releases 2023 Proposed ACA Rates And Health Plans
Harrisburg, PA – Acting Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys today released the 2023 requested rate filings for insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. As filed, 2023 will see increased competition and more choices for consumers within some counties. Both the individual and small group rate requests will result in a moderate statewide average increase.
Alaska is also a sparsely populated state with only two carriers on their individual market and four on their small group market. Alaska's insurance department website is useless when it comes to getting rate filings or enrollment data; I had to use the federal Rate Review site to even get the requested rate changes.
Fortunately, Premera Blue Cross includes a summary which lists their enrollment numbers, and with Moda being the only other carrier on the market, I was able to estimate a weighted average (assuming Moda only has around 2,200 enrollees, which seems about right given Alaska's total on-exchange enrollment of roughly 23,000 people).
Average rate change for unsubsidized enrollees in 2022 will be an ugly 18.7% on the individual market...underscoring how vitally important it is that the American Rescue Plan subsidies be extended (preferably permanently).
On the small group market, the unweighted average increase is 4.8%.
North Carolina has posted their preliminary 2023 individual and small group market rate filings. For the most part there's nothing terribly interesting or unusual that catches my eye, although I am a bit curious about Bright Health Co. and Friday Health Plans on the small group market. Both of them supposedly just entered the North Carolina sm. group market in 2022 and both are supposedly dropping out of it in 2023...or at least neither one of them is listed on the 2023 filing summary. Huh.
It's also worth noting that the enrollment totals for each carrier are projected for 2023, not current, though I'd imagine the relative market share is roughly the same, which would mean the weighted average rate increase would be around the same statewide as well.
It's worth noting that each market has a new entrant for 2022: UnitedHealthcare is joining the individual market while National Health Insurance is jumping into the off-exchange Small Group market.
UPDATE 11/03/22: Now that the 2023 Open Enrollment Period has officially launched, the Missouri Insurance Dept. has finally posted the final/approved rate changes. They've made some very minor tweaks to a few of the individual market filings, but that just brings the weighted average down around 0.1 points to 11% even.
The small group market filings were approved as is.
The Department of Insurance receives preliminary health plan information for the following year from insurance carriers by June 1 and reviews the proposed plan documents and rates for compliance with Idaho and federal regulations.The Department of Insurance does not have the authority to set or establish insurance rates, but it does have the authority to deem rate increases submitted by insurance companies as reasonable or unreasonable. After the review and negotiation process, the carriers submit their final rate increase information.The public is invited to provide comments on the rate changes. Please send any comments to Idaho Department of Insurance.
via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), by email:
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the latest enrollment figures for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These programs serve as key connectors to care for more millions of Americans.
Medicare
As of April 2022, 64,449,451 people are enrolled in Medicare. This is an increase of 88,177 since the last report.
34,879,219 are enrolled in Original Medicare.
29,570,232 are enrolled in Medicare Advantage or other health plans. This includes enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans with and without prescription drug coverage.
50,011,957 are enrolled in Medicare Part D. This includes enrollment in stand-alone prescription drug plans as well as Medicare Advantage plans that offer prescription drug coverage.
Over 12 million individuals are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, so are counted in the enrollment figures for both programs.
Today, following President Biden’s Executive Order on ensuring access to reproductive health care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), alongside the Departments of Labor and of the Treasury (Departments), took action to clarify protections for birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the ACA, most private health plans are required to provide birth control and family planning counseling at no additional cost.
The Georgia Access model would eliminate the use of HealthCare.gov, transitioning consumers to decentralized enrollment through private web-brokers and insurers. The state would establish its own subsidy structure to allow for 1) the subsidization of plans that do not comply with all the ACA’s requirements; and 2) enrollment caps if subsidy costs exceed federal and state funds.
There's not a single part of the paragraph above which shouldn't be setting off major alarms:
On the last episode of "Who Wants to Try and Appease Joe Manchin?," the entire Democratic Senate caucus, as well as President Biden, had basically given up on trying to get West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to be reasonable after spending a solid year listening to him come up with one excuse after another not to pass an ever-shrinking domestic "soft infrastructure" agenda.
In the end, they accepted that the $3.5 trillion "Build Back Better" package, which was later slashed to around $1.6 trillion by the time it passed the House of Representatives last fall, wasn't going to happen.
Instead, they were going to have to accept a shadow of its former self: A roughly $300 billion healthcare-only package which would primarily accomplish only two of the major provisions of the original pacakge (and only part of those):
For years, consumer advocates and some legislators have been battling to rein in escalating health care costs. Now the state has created a new agency to limit future growth in health care costs — and it will have the power to enforce that mandate.
...In California and nationally, the most cited reason for people being uninsured or underinsured is cost. Even those with robust insurance sometimes struggle to afford hospital bills and their medication. Some take extreme measures, such as rationing their dosages or traveling south of the border for more affordable care. Half of Californians skipped or postponed medical care in 2021 because of costs, according to a California Health Care Foundation report.
...The recently approved state budget includes $30 million to create the office, whose key responsibility will be to set and enforce limits on cost growth for the industry, including hospitals, health insurers and physician groups.
