Louisiana

Originally posted 8/09/23; updated 11/07/23

Louisiana's rate filing database is frustrating, because it's both highly-detailed and confusing at the same time.

They break out the filings not between Individual and small group markets or on- vs. off-exchange policies, but between rate increases over and under 10%. Normally that would be fine, but they also have multiple listings within each market for several carriers; HMO Louisiana, in fact, has 11 entries, each for a different product line, making it tedious and difficult to piece together the weighted average rate change and current enrollment for the carrier as a whole.

Not that any of that matters this year, as they don't appear to have posted any of the ACA-compliant individual market filings there anyway. I had to rely entirely on the federal Rate Review site, and the filings there still don't include enrollment data for most carriers, so the averages below are all unweighted only:

  • Individual Market: Around 1.7% higher
  • Small Group Market: 9.4% higher

It's worth noting, however that Humana is, once again, dropping out of the states' small group market, while Vantage Health Plan appears to be pulling out of both the individual and small group markets in Louisiana.

UPDATE 11/07/23: In the end, every requested rate change was approved as is in both markets.

Louisiana

Louisiana's rate filing database is frustrating, because it's both highly-detailed and confusing at the same time.

They break out the filings not between Individual and small group markets or on- vs. off-exchange policies, but between rate increases over and under 10%. Normally that would be fine, but they also have multiple listings within each market for several carriers; HMO Louisiana, in fact, has 11 entries, each for a different product line, making it tedious and difficult to piece together the weighted average rate change and current enrollment for the carrier as a whole.

Not that any of that matters this year, as they don't appear to have posted any of the ACA-compliant individual market filings there anyway. I had to rely entirely on the federal Rate Review site, and the filings there still don't include enrollment data for most carriers, so the averages below are all unweighted only:

  • Individual Market: Around 2.5% higher
  • Small Group Market: 5.4% higher
Rate Changes

As I noted last night, thanks to the federal Rate Review website finally being updated to include the final, approved 2022 rates for both the individual and small group markets in all 50 states (+DC), I've been able to fill in the missing data for my annual ACA Rate Change Project.

As I note there, the overall weighted average looks like it'll be roughly +3.5% nationally.

Normally I write up a separate entry for both the preliminary and approved rate changes in each individual state, but it seems like overkill to create 14 separate entries at once. Besides, in many of these states there's been few if any changes between the preliminary and approved rate changes.

Louisiana

Louisiana's rate filing database is frustrating, because it's both highly-detailed and confusing at the same time.

They break out the filings not between Individual and small group markets or on- vs. off-exchange policies, but between rate increases over and under 10%. Normally that would be fine, but they also have multiple listings within each market for several carriers; HMO Louisiana, in fact, has 11 entries, each for a different product line, making it tedious and difficult to piece together the weighted average rate change and current enrollment for the carrier as a whole.

In addition, it looks like the state regulators have given final approved rate changes for 2022 in some cases but not others...even within the same carrier and market.

As a result, my weighted averages below may be off somewhat.

With that in mind, it looks like Louisiana's individual market is looking at final average rate hikes of 4.75%, while their small group market carriers are seeking preliminary increases of around 6.9%.

Louisiana

I've once again relaunched my project from last fall to track Medicaid enrollment (both standard and expansion alike) on a monthly basis for every state dating back to the ACA being signed into law.

For the various enrollment data, I'm using data from Medicaid.gov's Medicaid Enrollment Data Collected Through MBES reports. Unfortunately, they've only published enrollment data through December 2020. In some states I've been able to get more recent enrollment data from state websites and other sources.

Today I'm presenting Louisiana. For enrollment data from January 2021 on, I'm relying on adjusted estimates based on raw data from the Louisiana Health Dept.

Louisiana

 Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.

Here's Louisiana (reminder: Louisiana calls them Parishes, not Counties):

Note: The CDC lists ~64,000 Louisiana residents (4.6% of the total fully vaccinated) whose county of residence is unknown.

Louisiana joins the disturbingly-long list of states where the 2021 individual & small group market rate filings are either completely missing or heavily redacted, thus making it impossible for me to break out the market share by carrier and thus running a weighted average rate change.

I really hope this trend is reversed in the future, whether via HHS transparency regulations or through legislation.

In any event, the unweighted average rate increase for the Louisiana indy market is around 6.9%, and for the small group market it's roughly 5.2%.

Louisiana's 2020 Presidential primary was scheduled for April 4th, but the other day Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin agreed to reschedule it for June 20th...which is actually later than the last previously-scheduled primary in the U.S. Virgin Islands on June 6th:

The presidential primary elections in Louisiana slated for April will be delayed by two months, the latest in a series of dramatic steps government leaders have taken to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, Republican, and Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, both said Friday they would use a provision of state law that allows them to move any election in an emergency situation to delay the primary.

The presidential primary elections, initially scheduled for April 4th, will now be held June 20th. Ardoin said in a press conference he does not know of any other states that have moved elections because of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19.

As my regular readers know, I've been a strong proponent of encouraging states to pass laws locking in as many ACA "blue leg" protections as possible in the event that the ACA itself is actually struck down by the idiotic #TexasFoldEm lawsuit (again: the ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is due to drop at any time).

However, I've also tried to make it clear that there would be a trade-off involved: If you're going to lock in all of those "Blue Leg" protections (Guaranteed Issue, Community Rating, Essential Health Benefits, No Annual/Lifetime Caps, etc), that will mean that the premiums/deductibles will be higher than they are without those protections.

This is precisely why so-called "short-term, limited duration" policies (aka #ShortAssPlans) and other non-ACA compliant policies cost so much less at the front end...they cherry pick their enrollees and don't cover the more expensive treatments many people require.

Personally, I still think states should lock in those protections anyway, since there's only two ways this can play out:

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