Like Wyoming, Alaska is also a sparsely populated state with only two carriers on their individual market and three (possibly four?) on their small group market. Also like Wyoming, 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 2,000 enrollees, which seems about right given Alaska's total on-exchange enrollment of roughly 18,000 people).
On the small group market, only three carriers are listed in the federal database; Premera Blue Cross isn't, which either means they're pulling out of the state's small biz market or they just haven't been added to the database yet.
Average rate change for unsubsidized enrollees in 2022 will be 10.6% on the individual market...except that almost every enrollee will qualify for financial subsidies this year. On the small group market, the unweighted average increase is 6.4%.
Wyoming is the smallest state and only has two carriers offering individual market policies (and just three offering small group plans). This makes it pretty simple for me.
Unfortunately, neither their insurance department website nor their SERFF filings give any indication of the enrollment numbers for any of the carriers, making it impossible to calculate a weighted average for either market. Then again, assuming a roughly even market share split, the unweighted averages should be pretty close: -4.1% individual market, +1.0% small group.
Tennessee's proposed 2022 rate filings are pretty straightforward...no new entrants or drop-outs among the carriers in either the individual or small group markets, and the SERFF filings actually include the enrollment totals for all of them in both markets (a rarity these days!).
The weighted average premium increase for unsubsidized enrollees is 4.4% for indy market enrollees and 8.9% on the small group market.
UPDATE 10/26/21: Well, it looks like all of the requested rates have been approved by the TN regulators without any changes on either market.
South Dakota's 2022 rate filings are pretty straightforward. There's still just two carriers offering policies on the individual market (Avera and Sanford), while it looks like UnitedHealthcare may be dropping out of the states small group market (they have a rate filing in the SERFF database, but it doesn't show up on the federal Rate Review database, and even the SERFF filing doesn't lis any specific rate increase or decrease).
Assuming all are approved as is, residents are looking at a 1.4% rate drop on the individual market and a 4.0% increase for small group plans.
UPDATE 10/26/21: Sure enough, it looks like all rate requests have been signed off on as is.
Given how much I've been focusing on the red/blue divide when it comes to the COVID pandemic (both in terms of cases & deaths as well as vaccinations), I figured it'd be a good idea to take a look at the case and death rates based purely on vaccination rates instead.
The following graphs are up to date as of yesterday (10/12/21). Both measure the county-level case and death rates since the end of June compared against what percentage of the population is fully vaccinated (i.e., 2 doses of Pfizer/Moderna or 1 dose of Johnson & Johnson).
I've broken the population of the 50 states +DC (~331 million people...this doesn't include the U.S. territories) has been broken out into ten brackets of roughly 33.1 million apiece.
As you can see, case rates since June are 2.3x higher in the least-vaccinated tenth of the country (under 40.2% fully vaccinated) than in the most-vaccinated tenth (66.9% or higher):
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old.
For most states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
Unfortunately, the South Carolina Insurance Dept. website isn't particularly helpful when it comes to getting the annual rate filing data for these analyses--they post a link to the federal Rate Review website and the SERFF database, but that's it...and most of the filings don't show up in SERFF, while the Rate Review database actuarial memos are all heavily redacted.
As a result, all I have is the unweighted 2022 average rate changes, which are basically flat for the individual market and down around 4.4% for small group plans.
The other noteworthy item is that it looks like UnitedHealthcare is pulling completely out of South Carolina's ACA-compliant small group market, though it's possible that they just haven't been added to the federal Rate Review database yet.
State of Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner Requested and Approved Summary for 2022 Rates in the Individual, Small Group, and Large Group Markets
The Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) has completed its review of plan year 2022 rates for the individual, small group, and large group markets. This document is a summary of the requested and approved amounts for each insurer by market.
As required by the ACA, OHIC reviews premiums in the individual and small group markets by examining the following components:
Since Delta began circulating widely in the U.S., Covid has exacted a horrific death toll on red America: In counties where Donald Trump received at least 70 percent of the vote, the virus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June, according to Charles Gaba, a health care analyst. In counties where Trump won less than 32 percent of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000.
Oklahoma Consumers Have More Health Insurance Options for 2022 ACA Plans
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) announced today which health health insurance companies will be offering plans in the Oklahoma Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace for 2022. Two new insurers will be joining the Marketplace next year giving Oklahoma consumers more health insurance options. Starting this year, consumers will also have an extra 30 days to make plan selections during the ACA Open Enrollment Period for individual health insurance plans running from November 1, 2021 through January 15, 2022.
