Sticker shock hits NH health insurance buyers
By
New Hampshire Union Leader
*
-- Small business owners and middle-class individuals buying health insurance in
But once the open enrollment period began earlier this month and they took to "shopping" for the limited options on the Obamacare exchange, the numbers were still eye-popping.
Most said they learned that even if they lowered the quality of their health care coverage -- raised deductibles, introduced coinsurance payments they would have to make -- none of it did much to soften the blow.
"I will be spending
"I'm up 68 percent in a Harvard Pilgrim Gold plan which I don't use, knock on wood," Surdukowski said. "It's like a third mortgage."
And there's
"I simply didn't renew my insurance. In addition to the much higher deductible it went to, I had to pay a 40 percent co-pay," Preston said. "I can go bankrupt at 40 percent as easily as 100 percent."
"That is very dangerous because the older you get, the more complications there are," McConville said.
"We were seeing the cost curve of health care going up and up, and to me the Affordable Care Act is the rocket ship that has taken costs into outer space."
One unknown is how much of an income tax penalty people in 2018 will pay the following year for not having insurance.
The sanction for the 2017 tax year without coverage is
For those individuals who need health insurance, eliminating the mandate might not be a good thing.
"The people dropping coverage would generally be healthier than average so that would raise premiums for individual market coverage because the average cost to people in the individual market would now be higher," says
Getting creative
These market changes have forced some to get creative like
He and his wife, Jean, started four years ago buying a policy from Christian Med-A-Share, one of a handful of religious-based health plans that don't have to comply with Obamacare mandates.
The option is a health sharing network which doesn't obligate the company to cover all health care costs of its members but generally does step up when someone has a catastrophic event -- such as after Stephen suffered a heart attack last April.
"The bills from that were over
Members must demonstrate their faith to be admitted into the group, which doesn't support health care that goes against their beliefs such as contraception, abortions or sex-change operations.
The couple also pays a family physician
Along with a catastrophic health insurance policy, the couple in total spend
"It's a lot of money and I do believe the mandates are driving up a lot of it,"
An average of 52%
These rising premiums -- an average of 52 percent for the 24,000 in the Obamacare exchange that don't get federal subsidies -- is particularly frustrating for small business owners because health care costs for low-income and lower middle-income with subsidies in 2018 will be the same or even slightly lower.
"That's a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow right now," said Senate Majority Leader
The so-called New Hampshire Health Protection Program expires without further action at the end of 2018.
Lisabritt Solsky is executive director of Well Sense, one of the two companies providing managed care services to those in the traditional Medicaid program.
It's indisputable that higher-than-expected costs to treat those low-income adults in the Medicaid expansion population has contributed to the price spike hitting middle-class wage earners in the exchange, she said.
That's because
Medicaid expansion
According to recent analysis conducted for the state
"The profile of someone eligible for Medicaid is very different than someone not in the program who is buying coverage in the exchange," Solsky said.
"Their needs are higher and more complicated than most of the people in the individual market. This has had a big impact and a contributing factor for the rates being charged in 2018."
The
Legislative leaders from both parties conclude this move, if lawmakers adopt it, could produce savings and help stabilize future rates.
"I do think this model preserves that great federal revenue that keeps coming to the state north of 90 percent," Solsky said.
"Hopefully this is going to help the individual market. I think it is a great way forward under the circumstances."
Cash to be king?
Studies have also shown this sticker shock is also the product of commercial insurers pricing their products relatively cheaply when the ACA first began and having to adjust with higher rates in future years to remain profitable.
That's what
This forced 27,000 having to find another insurer as of
"You really have to find that sweet spot for that very price-sensitive consumer," Solsky said. "You can't be priced so high nobody is going to pick you or price yourself so low that everybody is going to pick you. That's tricky."
Insurance Commissioner
"We understand that there is a lot of confusion for Granite Staters during this open enrollment period," Sevigny said. "The department is here as a resource for anyone in the state who has questions or concerns about their insurance coverage."
"That's what
"The longer Obamacare goes on, the more likely cash becomes king when it comes to getting the health care you need at the price you want."
Business Health Politics
___
(c)2017 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.)
Visit The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) at www.unionleader.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Minuteman Health customers get reprieve to make health insurance call
County budget requests can only go so far
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News