1 in 7 U.S. residents covered through Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces over the last decade, with all-time high enrollment under Biden-Harris Administration
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released new data showing that nearly 50 million Americans, or 1 in 7 U.S. residents, have been covered through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces since January 2014. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, which has lowered the cost of marketplace coverage by expanding the premium tax credit, the number of Americans covered through the marketplaces has significantly increased, reaching an all-time high of 20.8 million following open enrollment for 2024—18.2 million Americans have enrolled for the first time since January 2021.
As a result, I've been able to put together a weighted average requested rate increase for the individual market, which comes in at +3.9%.
For the small group market, I have to go with an unweighted average of +12.0%. It's also worth noting that it looks like one of Aetna's divisions is pulling out of the OH small group market, as are two fof the 4 (!) UnitedHealthcare divisions and possibly AultCare, although I'm not sure about that one.
North Dakota only has 3 carriers participating in their individual health insurance market and four in their small group market, since it appears that Health Partners will be pulling out of the latter next year.
For the indy market, the weighted average premium increase being requested is a painful 16.7%, although this may be off slightly due to Medica's enrollment number being a rough estimate (last year's total ND market was only 45,000 people; I'm assuming Medica only has around 2,000 enrollees this year).
For the small group market, I only have the unweighted average rate hikes, which come in at 10.8%.
Ah, at last, another state which includes both the average requested rate changes for 2024 as well as the number of enrollees each carrier has for both the individual and small group markets in clear, transparent language!
Generally, according to NC Insurance laws, health insurance rates must not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory, and must exhibit a reasonable relationship to the benefits provided in the policy.
Overall, individual market carriers in North Carolina are requesting 7% rate increases in 2025 for unsubsidized policies, while small group market carriers are asking for a 6.5% bump. It's worth noting that one of the three (!) UnitedHealthcare divisions is pulling out of the NC small group market next year for whatever reason.
The bad news is that I was only able to acquire effectuated enrollment for 3 of New Mexico's 4 individual market carriers participating in 2025 (a fifth carrier, Western Sky, is dropping out of the market entirely).
The good news is that I'm able to roughly estimate the enrollment of the remaining carrier (BCBS NM) if I look at on-exchange effectuated enrollment as of February and assume that another 10% or so is off-exchange. That gives me an estimated weighted average increase of 10.6%.
Even if that estimate is wrong, it doesn't make much difference since the unweighted average is around 10.1% anyway.
As for the small group market, I only have an unweighted average there of 8.6%.
New Jersey individual & small group market carriers are asking for unweighted average rate increases of 7.3% and 4.5% respectively for 2025. However, the unweighted averages don't tell the whole story--the carriers are asking for rate hikes ranging from as low as 3.8% to as high as 16.2% on the individual market, and from as low as an 18.8% reduction to a 12.3% increase for small group plans.
As is the case with far too many states these days, most of the rate filing memorandums are heavily redacted in New Jersey, making it nearly impossible to get ahold of the actual enrollment numbers, which means I have no way of running a weighted average on either market.
I should note that the 433,000 estimate for New Jersey's total individual market is based on the assumption that 90% of it is via the ACA exchange, with only 10% being enrolled off-exchange.
Nevadans Get a Preview of 2025 Proposed Health Insurance Rate Changes for Upcoming Open Enrollment
Starting today, Nevada consumers who shop for their health insurance on the individual health insurance market can view and provide comments on proposed rate changes for Plan Year 2025.
The Nevada Division of Insurance (Division) has received and made public on its website the 2025 proposed rate changes from health insurers intending to sell plans on and off the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (the "Exchange"). The Exchange is the state agency that assists eligible Nevada residents to purchase affordable health and dental plans.
Nebraska doesn't even bother listing indy/small group plan rate filings on their own insurance department website...the link goes directly to the federal Rate Review database. The problem with this is that very few filings here are unredacted, which means it's difficult to acquire the policy enrollees for many carriers needed to run a weighted average.
Nebraska has 4 carriers on the individual market for 2025: BCBS, Medica, NE Total Care and Oscar Health. The unweighted average rate increase being requested is around 4.0%.
For the 4 Small Group market carriers, I do have enrollment data for two of them, but without knowing the other two this isn't terribly useful. The unweighted average rate change being requested there is a 9.3% increase.
The good news is that this year at least, the SERFF database has both the average rate changes as well as the 2024 effectuated enrollment for all carriers on both the individual and small group markets. There's one curiousity, however: For the small group market, UnitedHealthcare shows up in the SERFF database but doesn't appear on the federal Rate Review website.
This doesn't really move the needle much either way, however, since UHC only reports having 250 enrollees anyway.
In any event, individual market carriers are requesting average 8.3% rate increases, while small group carriers are asking for similar 8.6% hikes.
Not a whole lot stands out to me other than SSM Health Insurance apparently dropping out of the states indy market and a new carrier, Bankers Reserve Life Insurance, newly joining it.
At the same time, the Missouri small group market appears to be losing two carriers (or three depending on your POV): Aetna Health, Aetna Life and Cigna Health & Life are all missing from the 2025 filing summaries as well as the federal Rate Review database.
In any event, the MO individual market is looking at average premium reductions of 1.7% if approved as is, while small group plans are likely to increase by about 7.9% overall.
As always, these are subject to state regulatory review and approval.
