ACA, High Costs Dominated Health Insurance News In 2016

Two topics dominated InsuranceNewsNet’s list of Top 10 health insurance articles in 2016 – the Affordable Care Act and the cost of care.

In our most widely read health insurance article, the ACA and disappearing agent commissions combined to create a storm of reader interest. When Congress refused to provide health insurers with $2.5 billion as part of the Affordable Care Act's risk corridor program, they ended up taking money right out of health insurance agents' pockets. The news of how this affected health insurance agents led our list of Top 10 health insurance articles.

Another ACA-related story, that of UnitedHealthcare announcing its pullout from the exchanges, also had a place in the Top 10.

Short-term insurance hit the Top 10 list not once but twice. An article on the Obama administration’s proposal limiting short-term health policies to a term of three months made the list. That article came a few short months after news that big premium increases for long-term care insurance opened opportunities for short-term care insurance.

High costs dominated the rest of the Top 10 list.

We looked at whether disability insurance prices would rise in the wake of MetLife’s decision to suspend its sales of individual DI. An expert from Genworth broke down the numbers from its annual Cost of Care report to show that long-term care costs continue to outpace the inflation rate.

A study showed that retirees are burdened by skyrocketing health costs, and that caught the eyes of our readers as well.

Health premiums are expected to rise by 12 percent in 2017, an item that generated enough reader interest to land in our Top 10.

We looked at health savings accounts and their role in keeping consumer costs under control in the ACA world.

But the health insurance news was not completely dominated by tales of high costs and ACA woes. Rounding out our Top 10 list was a report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, detailing their recommendations for stimulating demand for long-term care insurance.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].