Health insurers blame individual mandate repeal for 24 percent rate hike
Health insurers offering plans on
The state
The reason insurers are citing for the increase involves two words that should be familiar to anyone who followed last year's debate around repealing the Affordable Care Act individual mandate.
The provision of the Affordable Care Act placed a tax penalty on individuals without health insurance coverage. While it was never the most popular provision of President
Trump opposed it, however, and a Republican-led Congress added a provision in its major tax reform bill that removed the individual mandate's tax penalty.
In a statement announcing the rate increase requests, State Financial Services Superintendent
"The single biggest justification offered by insurers for the requested increases is the Trump administration's repeal of the individual mandate penalty," Vullo said in a statement. "The individual mandate, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, helped mitigate against dramatic price increases by ensuring healthier insurance pools."
A press release from the
NYHPA President
While more than 4.3 million New Yorkers received health insurance through the state exchange, the majority of those sign-ups are for Medicaid, Child Health Plus and the subsidized Essential Plans. The proposed premium increases would only impact the approximately 253,000 residents enrolled in commercial health plans through the exchange. In
Fidelis has the largest share of
Oscar,
The state
In the much smaller group market for small businesses, which has an enrollment about 9,500 statewide, the requested rate increases were more modest. The 19 insurers offering plans on the market requested an average premium increase of 7.5 percent.
Here's the foil list of companies and their requests:
Individual market:
CDPHP: 5.1 percent
Crystal Run Health Plan, 1.Ш 15.7 percent
Emblem: 31.5 percent
Exceflus: 8.9 percent
Fidelis: 38.6 percent
IHBG 21.3 percent
MetroPlus: 1.5 percent
Oscar: 25.2 percent
UnitedHealthcare 23.6 percent
Small group market:
CDPHP: 6.7 percent
CDPHP UBI: 6.1 percent
Emblem: 12 percent
EmpireHealthchoice HMO: 5.2 percent
Excellus: 3.8 percent
HВС: 3.8 percent
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