Via email (no direct link to PR yet):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 2, 2022

New HHS Report Shows National Uninsured Rate Reached All-Time Low in 2022

Secretary Becerra Says Biden-Harris Administration Efforts to Expand Coverage, Lower Costs through American Rescue Plan and Other Actions Are Working

Utah's preliminary 2022 individual and small group market rate filings are listed below. They launched a handy new website specifically dedicated to insurance filings, which is nice to see.

Unless there's a change in the final/approved rates, unsubsidized individual market plan premiums are increasing by around 6.0% in 2023, while small group plans will go up 6.7% on average.

UPDATE 10/12/22: It looks like every preliminary rate filing was accepted by the state insurance regulators as is, on both the individual and small group market.

Pennsylvania

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.

Via the Pennsylvania Insurance Dept:

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

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

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.

Missouri

Missouri's insurance dept. has released the proposed 2022 rate filings for both the individual and small group markets. Overall, individual market carriers are requesting rate hikes of 11.1% on average, while the small group market carriers are asking for an average 11.8% increase.

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.

Idaho

Via the Idaho Insurance Dept:

Idaho Rate Review Individual

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.

CMS Logo

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.

Via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

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.

Georgia

Back in April, I did some minor champagne cork popping after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rightly put the kibosh on the so-called "Georgia Access Model" waiver pushed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp:

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:

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