Idaho health insurers propose average premium increase of 38% for 2018

[TexasTowelie]

Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho state Department of Insurance, announced today that health insurers offering plans on Idaho’s state insurance exchange have proposed premium rate increases next year averaging 38 percent. “I am deeply disappointed and frustrated to share these rates,” Cameron said in a news release; you can read it here. “I understand how difficult it will be for Idahoans to afford reasonable coverage, especially those without a subsidy.”

The rates, which also cover plans offered outside the exchange, aren’t final; while Cameron’s department doesn’t have authority to regulate rates, it can declare proposed rates “unreasonable,” and it has successfully negotiated lower rate increases with carriers in the past to avoid labeling them as unreasonable. Final rates will be announced in about two months.

Idaho Statesman reporter Audrey Dutton reports that the largest increases are proposed in the “silver” plans, which are the most popular ones on the exchange, falling mid-range in pricing and benefits between the lower-level “bronze” plans and the high-end “gold” plans. Silver plans are showing average increases of 50 percent in premiums; they range from a low of 40 percent at Blue Cross to 69 percent at SelectHealth. Dutton writes that because subsidies that help Idahoans purchase plans on the exchange are based on the silver plan rates, that could mean that Idahoans actually end up paying less, but the federal government has to pay more, depending on their plans. You can read her full report here.

Cameron, in the release, said the big rate increases for silver plans are being driven by the federal government’s potential refusal to fund something called the “cost share reduction” mechanism, or SCR, which lowers deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for lower-income enrollees. If it’s not funded, insurers still have to offer the benefit. “I call on Congress to either repeal the CSR requirement or fund the program,” Cameron said. “That action alone would reduce the proposed increase by at least 20 percent on the silver plans.”

Read more: http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2017/jul/31/idaho-health-insurers-propose-average-rate-increase-38-2018/

[yonder]

1. thanks TT

Here we go. This is sure to hit tomorrow's Statesman edition with the subsequent wailing and gnashing of teeth from the redcaps. I'm afraid this will play out locally as "Obamacare bad" rather than examining how right-wing monkeying around with defunding and otherwise disenfranchising the ACA has (and will) cause problems. It may not matter, this being Idaho, but hopefully Audrey has done her homework and can present both sides accurately. As I said, it still may not matter. We shall see.

[TexasTowelie]

2. You're welcome.

I agree with you that the conservatives will tout this as another failure of Obamacare while refusing to admit that the uncertainty in the health insurance market is related to Trump and the Republicans rather than a systemic problem with the ACA.