Obamacare plan rates to drop in 2019
Health insurance rates for individual coverage in
State regulators Wednesday approved lower rates for individual insurance policy charges in 2019 for the biggest health exchange plans offered in
"This year's approved rate filing requests are positive developments for
Health insurers said the individual market has tended to stabilize after four years of Obamacare experience and after worries about some cuts in government payments have been allayed by recent fixes in how the government pays insurers.
"The individual market is profitable and we're getting new competition because more insurers want a piece of that market," said Huffaker, who created his company in 2013 to help market individual plans under the Affordable Care Act. "At first, carriers came in with rates that were too low and, by insuring people who may not have previously been covered, they ended up with a sicker and costlier population. But the market seems to have stabilized and is healthy now."
BlueCross had initially filed for a 10.9 percent rate cut this spring and increased its rate cut request to 14.9 percent last month after the Trump administration made changes in the risk adjustment rule for compensating insurers for the increased risk of taking on previously uninsured or under-insured people without regard to pre-existing health conditions.
"We're pleased we're able to lower rates beyond our original proposal after evaluating the impact of risk adjustment," BlueCross spokeswoman
BlueCross is the only health insurer offering individual health plans under Obamacare in
BlueCross nearly tripled its initial Obamacare premium rates over the past five years of Obamacare after those signing up for such coverage tended to be sicker and more costlier to cover than originally expected and some of the government payments promised by
BlueCross, which had lost more than
Cigna also further cut its rates for 2019 from an initial 4.8 percent to 12.9 percent after the Trump administration made changes in the risk adjustment payments to insurers under Obamacare this summer. Cigna spokesman
But Alexander said rates would be even lower if
"Even though for the first time since Obamacare took effect
Open enrollment for consumers to sign up for one of the individual plans under the health care marketplace for 2019 will be from
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