Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
May 13, 2016 at 06:12 AM
More clues about next year’s individual health insurance product menus seeped out today, as issuers in many states rushed to meet a HealthCare.gov rate proposal filing deadline.
See also: PPACA World 2017: Filing Day!
Filing a product application does not commit an insurer to actually selling the product. As state insurance regulators were going through the filings, a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Columbia issued a ruling that could throw off the federal cost-sharing reduction subsidy assumptions that issuers used when developing their proposals.
But Aetna (NYSE:AET) told reporters from the Wall Street Journal that it has filed rates in all of the 15 states in which it now sells individual exchange plan coverage, and that it will expand into additional state exchange programs.
Here are some more 2017 individual menu highlights we found today on the Web:
California: The board of Covered California, a state-based Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange, is including a 2017 increase assumption of 8 percent in its budget projections.
District of Columbia: The locally based D.C. exchange, DC Health Link, is unique, because its small-group division provides health coverage for many members of Congress and many top congressional aides. The D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking says that all four insurers that have been selling through the district’s locally based group exchange this year — Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth(NYSE:UNH) — have filed small-group products for 2017.
Rates changes range from a decrease of 4.4 percent to an increase of 11. 4 percent. CareFirst and Kaiser, the 2016 individual coverage issuers, are returning. Their rate changes range from none to an increase of 13.3 percent.
Florida: The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Florida regulators are treating individual carriers’ proposed 2017 rate increases as trade secrets. But regulators revealed that 15 issuers have filed products, with an average proposed premium increase is 17.7 percent.
