Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
By 
November 13, 2018 at 12:03 PM
A web broker has some early, rough data on how much its customers are actually paying for unsubsidizied individual major medical coverage for 2019.
The web broker, eHealth Inc., says its customers are actually paying $574 per month for the 2019 coverage purchased from Nov. 1 through Nov. 7, up 21% from the 2018 average.
The average monthly premium for family coverage has increased 10%, to $1,310.
(Related: ACA Public Exchanges Lurch Back Open)
The individual major medical open enrollment period for 2019 started Nov. 1 in most of the country and is set to run until Dec. 15.
Customers who earn less than 400% of the federal poverty level may be able to qualify for federal premium tax credit subsidies; customers who earn more have to pay the full list price for the coverage.
The eHealth premium increase does not necessarily reflect a change in the cost of comparable coverage, because eHealth did not try to adjust the price change figures for changes in the average age of the customer, the type of coverage purchased, or other factors other than the base rate of the coverage.
The company notes that the average age of first-week individual major medical purchasers has increased to 46, from 40 last year, and that first-week customers purchased more mid-level silver plans, and fewer bare-bones bronze plans, than they purchased during the first week of the open enrollment period for 2018.
