2017 Health Insurance Rate Requests

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade There will never be competitive markets for insurance, hospitals, doctors, drugs.

There's no reason markets can't work for this service, but it is different from some other services. There are several routes to go that would make it work, but, from where we are right now, the easiest approach is to provide consumers with high-quality data on quality of care available through various insurers/networks. The government is in the best position to gather that data. Not just general data, but highly specific information based on types of care.

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade It's probably going to take a lot of pain and more scandals like Epipen before people make politicians pay for inaction.

Playing whack-a-mole with one issue after another isn't going to get the job done. And price caps/controls will only assure scarcity (as they always do). We need to address the fundamental issues that cause the problems.

[explanade]

You think you're going to have a competitive market without cooperation from the entities making all this money now?

There's no economic incentive for them to agree to more competition in their business.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade There's no economic incentive for them to agree to more competition in their business.

Ford doesn't "agree" to allow GM into the marketplace.

[GTFan]

Bigtime increases for Georgia next year:

Obamacare insurance to jump by double digits in Georgia next year | www.myajc.com

Alliant, 21 percent

Ambetter (Peach State), 13.7 percent

Blue Cross and Blue Shield, 21.4 percent

Harken Health, 51 percent

Humana, 67.5 percent

Kaiser Permanente, 17.6 percent

I stand by my post above, these are beyond the pale increases that hopefully will result in rebates as pb4uski mentioned above. [Mod Edit]

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTFan I stand by my post above, these are beyond the pale increases that hopefully will result in rebates as pb4uski mentioned above.

These increases are high, and for sure will cause some hardship in Georgia. Still, when we look at the average cost of healthcare insurance in the US, some of these premiums are below average and can increase even more.

The KFF annual survey of employer sponsored healthcare shows that average yearly family premiums for 2015 were $17.5K (source here). The Milliman Index (here) shows that the average total cost for healthcare for a family of 4 was $26K. CMS reports per person personal health care spending for the 65 and older population was $18,988 in 2012.

[GTFan]

For sure Harken was underpriced this year, they are a new entrant trying to buy market share. Not surprising to see that increase given all the other data we've seen.

But I have a much harder time swallowing the Humana increase and wonder, as others have, if this is tied to the DoJ's attempt to block their merger with Aetna. I guess we're lucky to still have them as an option given the massive pullout they did overall.

[MichaelB]

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation released some data yesterday, the Miami Herald published this FOIR chart (attached below) http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-ne...-Year-2017.pdf
large rate increases, no real surprises. The only large insurer not present is UHC. Humana, Aetna and Cigna continue - not a surprise given that Florida is the nation's largest individual health care market with more than 2M QHPs in 2016. We don't know if they will cover the entire state or just the more populous counties (probably the latter). Herald article here

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo I tried to tell you not to move here...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 Yes, but you mentioned heat and scorpions and chiggers and all that stuff. Not insurance!

+1

Not in Texas and not contemplating moving there, but I can see how one is not afraid if he has health care to take care of heat strokes and venomous insect bites. We cannot all be as tough as Davy Crockett.

[MBSC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB (snip) The only large insurer not present is UHC. Humana, Aetna and Cigna continue - not a surprise given that Florida is the nation's largest individual health care market with more than 2M QHPs in 2016. We don't know if they will cover the entire state or just the more populous counties (probably the latter).

Here is a list of 2017 insurers in each FL county. http://www.floir.com/sitedocuments/I...onbyCounty.pdf

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBSC Here is a list of 2017 insurers in each FL county. http://www.floir.com/sitedocuments/I...onbyCounty.pdf

Looks like I will be with BCBS once again.

[GTFan]

Yep, the so-called #1 best place to retire in the other thread here, Crestview/Destin/Ft. Walton, has exactly one insurer either on or off-exchange - BCBS. And it's not exactly rural.

[MBSC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTFan For sure Harken was underpriced this year, they are a new entrant trying to buy market share. Not surprising to see that increase given all the other data we've seen.

Harken has announced they will only sell off-exchange plans in Georgia and Chicago in 2017.

Quote:

Harken will not offer individual plans through Obamacare exchanges in Georgia and Chicago in 2017, the company said Thursday in an e-mailed statement. It will continue to offer individual plans off the exchange, Harken said. Harken has canceled its plans to enter the Florida marketplace for 2017. Reference: Harken Exits Obamacare Markets as UnitedHealth Startup Struggles - Bloomberg

[ShokWaveRider]

BCBS AKA Florida Blue (I think) pretty much owns the Florida Health insurance Market. It "may" not be such a bad thing as Florida could maintain a "group" rate as a result, well perhaps...

[GTFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBSC Harken has announced they will only sell off-exchange plans in Georgia and Chicago in 2017.

Oh crap, that was our backup plan for our current HC providers if Humana goes away (we got a notice from them yesterday that they were discontinuing our ACA plan). Now we may have no one in-network for WellStar, the largest provider network in our area.

Looks like we may end up having to switch to Kaiser and getting new docs. This sucks, but at least we'll still have a choice.

[bizlady]

Minnesota Individual Health Insurance Policies - 2017 Average Rate Changes
Blue Plus 55.00%
Group Health 53.00%
HealthPartners 50.00%
Medica Ins Co 57.50%
Medica Health Plans of WI 59.40%
PreferredOne 63.00%
Ucare 66.80%

BCBS pulled out of market- all wanted to pull out and the state got them to stay by approving large increases. Who knows what 2018 will bring....

source: http://mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/rat...acket-2017.pdf

[rodi]

Yikes on those rate increases. Here in San Diego the average rate increase for 2017 is 10%... I think it's 15% statewide. My insurer (Kaiser Permanente) is only a 5% increase per the figures announced this past June.

We'll see how accurate that is on Nov 1st when it's open enrollment on Covered CA.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bizlady Minnesota Individual Health Insurance Policies - 2017 Average Rate Changes Blue Plus 55.00% Group Health 53.00% HealthPartners 50.00% Medica Ins Co 57.50% Medica Health Plans of WI 59.40% PreferredOne 63.00% Ucare 66.80% BCBS pulled out of market- all wanted to pull out and the state got them to stay by approving large increases. Who knows what 2018 will bring.... source: http://mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/rat...acket-2017.pdf

the most disturbing part of this was the state insurance commissioner said that along with the higher rates they agreed to "capacity limits" for new enrollments. No further details were given about how these limits will be enforced.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan No further details were given about how these limits will be enforced.

My guess is they don't know, and will probably leave it up to each insurer to determine when they've reached their limit.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB My guess is they don't know, and will probably leave it up to each insurer to determine when they've reached their limit.

How is that going to work in an orderly manner when 100K people need insurance plans to replace BCBS leaving the market? What if they all cap at 10K, how are the other 50K supposed to get insurance?

BSBS left 100K+ without insurance and some of the 7 or so plans are strictly metro HMO's so this could be a real disaster in the making.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan How is that going to work in an orderly manner when 100K people need insurance plans to replace BCBS leaving the market? What if they all cap at 10K, how are the other 50K supposed to get insurance? BSBS left 100K+ without insurance and some of the 7 or so plans are strictly metro HMO's so this could be a real disaster in the making.

I have no idea how it will work. That is one of the most important responsibilities of the State Insurance Regulator.

We should not forget that Minnesota has 5.5 million people, most have health insurance, which means that health insurers are there and doing a brisk business. They are choosing not to serve this segment of the population, but they certainly have the capability to do so. Even BCBS - they are not leaving Minnesota and will continue to offer Medicare, Medicaid, and group policies.

Open enrollment begins in 30 days, so they don't have much time to present their plan to state residents.