Health insurers propose double-digit-percentage price increases for Illinois exchange plans

Illinois consumers may again be hit with double-digit-percentage increases in the prices of health insurance plans sold on the state’s Obamacare exchange for next year.

For 2027, the state’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, is proposing an average price increase of 14.9% across its exchange plans. UnitedHealthcare of Illinois is pitching an average 12.4% percent increase and Oscar Health Plan is proposing an average 12.7% increase. 

Celtic Insurance Company, which offers Ambetter plans on the exchange, is proposing an average 9.2% jump. 

Most people in Illinois get health insurance through their employers, Medicare or Medicaid, but each year hundreds of thousands of Illinois consumers who generally don’t have access to those options sign up for exchange plans.

In their filings with the state, the insurance companies blamed the proposed increases on rising medical costs and, in some cases, changes at the federal level that have led to fewer people paying for exchange plans. 

At the end of last year, enhanced subsidies that had helped to offset the costs of the plans expired after Congress failed to reach an agreement to extend them – an issue that was at the heart of last year’s government shutdown. 

Though many people continue to get subsidies this year, the subsidies are typically not as large as in the past and not as many people are eligible for them. 

In Illinois and elsewhere that’s meant higher costs for many plans that have led some people to skip paying for exchange plans. This year, Illinois consumers who bought insurance on the state’s exchange, Get Covered Illinois, are paying 26% more for coverage on average than they did the previous year. 

In the first few months of this year, 92,000 Illinois consumers lost or dropped their exchange plans, according to Get Covered Illinois. 

Advocates for the exchanges fear that many of those who drop their plans are healthier people whom insurers rely upon to help balance out the costs of covering sicker people. 

“… As some healthier individuals opt out of coverage, remaining members utilize health care services more frequently,” Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois said in a statement this week about the proposed increases. 

The insurer also said that the proposed jumps reflect the rising cost of care, increased use of medical services and the increased medical complexity of its members. In Illinois, Blue Cross has more than 294,000 people on its individual Affordable Care Act plans, according to its filing with the state.

A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare of Illinois said in an email that proposed price increases are being driven by higher hospital prices, increased use of medical services and rising specialty drug costs. More than 59,000 people in Illinois have UnitedHealthcare individual plans, according to the company’s filing.

Attempts to reach Oscar and Centene Corp., which is behind Celtic’s Ambetter plans, for comment were unsuccessful.

It’s disappointing but not surprising that rates may go up again next year, given changes at the federal level, said Kathy Waligora, deputy director of external affairs for EverThrive Illinois, an organization focused on reproductive justice. 

“The medical care folks are receiving is more expensive and because of the loss of tax credits and general cost of living increase, we’ve seen more people be forced to go without health insurance,” said Waligora, who is also a leader of Protect Our Care Illinois, a coalition of organizations working to defend Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

“With more and more folks becoming uninsured, with things becoming more and more expensive, health insurance is going to continue to go up unless we do something,” Waligora said. 

Illinois regulators must still approve the proposed rates before they’re finalized. Under Illinois law, regulators can reject or modify the proposed price increases if they deem them “excessive, unjustified or unfairly discriminatory.”

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