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States Facing Health Plan Premium Increases as High as 81%

News  |  By Gregory A. Freeman  
   August 09, 2017

Health plans are announcing their proposed premium increases for 2018 and some are quite high. The uncertainty over cost sharing reductions is driving some of the increases.

Uncertainty over the fate of cost sharing reductions (CSRs) and the rest of the Affordable Care Act is prompting health plans to hedge their bets by raising premiums for 2018, sometimes drastically. Some residents of Idaho could face an 81% increase.

President Donald Trump's threat to halt the CSR payments as a way to put pressure on Congress to repeal and replace the ACA could mean the loss of about $7 billion a year to health plans. Losing the CSR payments would be such a big hit that some health plans are saying huge premium increases are the only way they could remain viable in the market.

Health insurance premiums in Idaho could increase as much as 81%, according to data submitted to the state's insurance department. Five health plans offer products on the individual market in Idaho: Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Mountain Health Co-Op, PacificSource Health Plans, Regence BlueShield of Idaho, and SelectHealth.

For the popular silver plan, the average rate increase among all insurers in Idaho was 50%. The proposed average overall statewide rate increase is 38%.

Florida consumers also are looking at double-digit rate hikes for 2018, after state regulators asked insurers to submit backup plans to raise premiums even higher than what they had already proposed. Uncertainty about the CSR funding had the regulators worried that the previously submitted rates would not be sufficient.

Two insurers in Illinois also are seeking double-digit rate increases for next year, and one, Health Alliance Medical Plans, wants increases of 30% to 40% for two individual coverage plans.

In California, individual health insurance plans will cost on average 12.5% percent more in 2018, the state insurance exchange announced.

Los Angeles County can expect an average rate increase of 13.4 %. The exchange said all 11 insurance carriers currently on the exchange, Covered California, will continue to do business in the state for 2018, but Anthem Blue Cross of California said it will no longer do business on the individual market in Southern California.

It will continue to offer employer-sponsored plans but will discontinue offering individual plans in 16 of the 19 regions where it currently sells them.

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee attributed the rate increases and Anthem's pull back to "unprecedented uncertainty" about the future of the ACA and CSRs. Covered California also announced that it may add an additional surcharge to silver plans if the CSRs are withheld, or if their fate remains unknown for long.

The surcharges would add between 8% to 27% to silver plan premiums, with an average of 12.4%.

Gregory A. Freeman is a contributing writer for HealthLeaders.

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