On the Third Hand: Rates

On the one hand: The paper will be helpful to anyone who wants to know how states have tweaked the rate rules.

On the other hand: To me, what’s disturbing about the paper is that the authors talk about states’ efforts to minimize “premium shocks for consumers,” but never mention how much the rate rules increased rates for young, healthy consumers who earn too much to qualify for subsidies, or how the rules could affect insurers’ claim risk.

The analysts seem to treat the insurers as genies that can pay whatever claims the PPACA drafters, state regulators and consumers wish for them to pay.

On the third hand, the researchers could say that the genies are simply outside the scope of their article. But the genies have been awfully quiet about claims, and maybe it would be good for someone to knock on their lamps and see how they’re doing.