New York Health Insurers Ask for 16.6% Boost to ACA Exchange Rates

New York state provided little information about what’s behind the increases. The insurers’ filings weren’t immediately available online. But insurers and regulators in other states have laid the blame for some of their premium increases on uncertainty from Washington. The key questions include whether the Trump administration will enforce the requirement, known as the individual mandate, that all people buy health insurance, and whether it’ll pay the subsidies.

The wide range across states and companies is a testament to the haziness of the market.

In Pennsylvania, for instance, the regulator required insurers to submit their rate requests assuming smooth sailing, leading to a relatively smaller 8.8% request. But if the mandate isn’t enforced and subsidies aren’t paid, Pennsylvania’s insurers said they’d need to boost rates 36.3%.

In North Carolina, the dominant BlueCross BlueShield plan is raising rates about 23%. But the insurer would have increased rates just 8.8% if it had certainty on the subsidies, which are known as cost-sharing reduction payments. In Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut, premiums will rise more than 20% on average, according to data compiled by ACASignups.net and Bloomberg.

CareConnect, a health insurer owned by Northwell Health, requested a 29.7% increase for individual plans in New York, saying the hike was “part of a continuing correction and is an unavoidable response to this population’s unexpectedly large and continuing need for medical care.”

— Read Blue Cross Carrier to End Iowa Individual Sales in 2018 on ThinkAdvisor.