AgileHealthInsurance.com: 2019 Affordable Care Act Rates Make Short-Term Health Insurance Plans More Attractive

PR Newswire

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a statement that 2019 Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plan prices will drop by 1.5% for silver plans (SLCSP), the middle tier of ACA plans. Previous years saw significant increases, with premiums doubling. Even with the 1.5% decline in SLCSP rates for 2019, American consumers have been dealt a net rate increase of 69.2% from 2016 to 2019. Price stabilization is a key factor in measuring the effectiveness of the ACA.

With good news there is bad news. The bad news is that the average silver plan premium in 2018 was $536.94 for a 40-year-old female non-smoker, so it's not much relief for those Americans priced out of the ACA market. An analysis of 2018 ACA exchange plan affordability found that a family of three earning the average U.S. household income, with parents age 30 and one child, would not be able to find an affordable Silver plan in any county. The 1.5% decline in rates in the coming year will likely not provide much relief. In comparison a recent analysis of short term health insurance plans for a 40-year-old female non-smoker on AgileHealthInsurance.com found an average monthly premium of $199.93 and this included plans with much lower deductibles than the average ACA silver plan. Although short term health insurance does not include the same breadth of benefits as ACA plans, they provide medical coverage for illnesses and injuries and include services such as emergency room, hospitalization, doctors, specialists, labs, and other important benefits.

In 2019, there will be a wide variance in costs between states as health care prices remain largely based on locality. For example, those in the state of Washington will see an average premium increase of 13.8% for ACA marketplace plans while those in Iowa will see their first rate decrease for these plans with the state average premium dropping by 7.9%. In the short term health insurance market, there will be great variance as well with the average monthly premium for a 40-year-old female being $146.24 in Kansas, but $331.95 in Florida.

Both the number of ACA and short term health insurance products have increased this year. Gavin Southwell, CEO of AgileHealthInsurance.com's parent company, HIIQ, commented, "American consumers want choices when it comes to purchasing health insurance. Lower ACA premiums are a win for everyone. So is the expansion of short term health insurance to 12 month durations. With so many options, consumers can explore, compare, and find the right plan for their needs and budget."

Agilehealthinsurance.com offers thousands of short term health insurance and Obamacare alternative plans with varying levels of benefits, deductibles, and monthly premiums.

AgileHealthInsurance.com was launched in 2015 to educate consumers on the availability of private market health insurance products that are alternatives to Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) plans. Today AgileHealthInsurance is the largest distributor of short-term health insurance, providing a fast, online process for purchasing these plans. Short-term health insurance is a flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions. It is not Obamacare. Short-term health plans offer consumers the flexibility to choose health plans with the benefits that matter most to them and combine these benefits with broad provider networks. Additional information about AgileHealthInsurance can be found at www.AgileHealthInsurance.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

AgileHealthInsurance.com is a Silicon Valley-based technology company and independently managed division of Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIIQ). This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical fact, and may include statements relating to goals, plans and projections regarding new markets, products, services, growth strategies, anticipated trends in our business and anticipated changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws. Forward-looking statements are based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs are generally identifiable by use of words "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," or similar expressions and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our ability to maintain relationships and develop new relationships with health insurance carriers and distributors, our ability to retain our members, the demand for our products, the amount of commissions paid to us or changes in health insurance plan pricing practices, our ability to integrate our acquisitions, competition, changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws, and our ability to adapt to them, the ability to maintain and enhance our name recognition, difficulties arising from acquisitions or other strategic transactions, and our ability to build the necessary infrastructure and processes to maintain effective controls over financial reporting. These and other risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements are discussed in HIIQ's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be filed by HIIQ from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. You should not rely on any forward-looking statement as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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