Health Insurance Premiums Stabilizing
Health Care

Health Insurance Premiums Stabilizing

Stateline reports that insurance plans sold through the federal marketplaces are seeing much smaller price increases compared to last year.

“Despite Republican efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, insurance premiums will go up only slightly in most states where carriers have submitted proposed prices for next year. And insurance carriers are entering markets rather than fleeing them,” says Stateline’s Michael Ollove.

Insurers in the exchanges are turning a profit now, benefitting from several years of experience running their plans and from what turns out to have been excessive rate hikes last year. Premiums have already incorporated the increased costs resulting from the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act – including a reduction in federal outreach efforts and the expansion of short-term health care plans, which are expected to siphon some healthier customers away from the federal exchanges – and political uncertainty seems to be declining.

Some states are also taking steps to make up for reduced federal support – including creating their own reinsurance funds, boosting promotional efforts and limiting the availability of short-term plans – that are producing more stable marketplaces.

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