Idaho exchange may raise user fees

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho insurance exchange leaders may have to increase a fee tied to sales of individual policies by about 75 percent within two years, emails show.

The $70 million Your Health Idaho exchange’s board of directors in June set a 1.5 percent assessment on each policy.

The assessment is supposed to help the exchange raise enough money to stockpile exchange operational reserves.

The assessment is also supposed to be less than the 3.5 percent fee the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charging in the 34 states in which it’s running exchanges.

Being cheaper than Washington was a key selling point for Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter during the 2013 Legislature, when he convinced a sharply divided state House and Senate to support the idea of setting up a state-based exchange.

In early September, however, exchange finance chief Pat Kelly planned to tell board members the fee would likely have to be hiked to 2.6 percent by 2016, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press in a public records request.

While such a hike would leave fees at less than those charged by federal exchanges, it would add millions of dollars to costs of policies sold via Idaho’s exchange.

“Your Health Idaho’s assessment fee of 1.5 may not be sustainable,” according to a Sept. 5 email.

A combination of factors makes a fee hike likely, Kelly suggested, including the costs of operations, the average cost of an insurance plan and the number of people participating.

However, Kelly’s presentation — slated for members of the exchange’s finance committee on Sept. 6 — was canceled just hours before the meeting, other emails show.

Interviewed Thursday, Your Health Idaho executive director Amy Dowd recalled halting Kelly’s presentation on grounds his estimate was based on preliminary calculations not yet ready for public consumption.