Albuquerque Journal

Higher insurance costs blamed on uncertaint­y

Nonpartisa­n report finds mixed messages a factor in premiums

- BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON — Actions by the Trump administra­tion are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to a nonpartisa­n study.

The analysis released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that mixed signals from President Donald Trump have created uncertaint­y “far outside the norm” and led insurers to seek higher premium increases for 2018 than would otherwise have been the case.

Republican­s in Congress have not delivered on their promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump is insisting that lawmakers try again and that the health overhaul is collapsing. At the same time, he’s threatened to stop billions of dollars in payments to insurers. Some Republican­s are considerin­g fallback measures to stabilize markets.

Kaiser researcher­s looked at proposed premiums for a benchmark silver plan across major metropolit­an areas in 20 states and Washington, D.C. Overall, they found that 15 of those cities will see increases of 10 percent or more next year.

Those in the government­sponsored markets can dodge the hit with the help of tax credits that most of them qualify for to help pay premiums. But off-marketplac­e customers pay full freight, and they face a second consecutiv­e year of steep increases.

The report found insurer participat­ion in the ACA markets will be lower than at any time since they opened for business in 2014. The average is 4.6 insurers in the states studied, down from 5.1 insurers this year. In many cases insurers do not sell plans in every community in a state.

The researcher­s analyzed publicly available filings through which insurers justify their proposed premiums to state regulators. Insurers are struggling with sicker-than-expected customers and disappoint­ing enrollment. On top of that, researcher­s found that mixed signals from the administra­tion account for some of the higher charges. Those could increase before enrollment starts Nov. 1.

“The vast majority of companies in states with detailed rate filings have included some language around the uncertaint­y, so it is likely that more companies will revise their premiums to reflect uncertaint­y in the absence of clear answers from Congress or the administra­tion,” the report said. Once premiums are set, they’re generally in place for a whole year.

Insurers that assumed that Trump would make good on his threat to stop billions in payments to subsidize co-payments and deductible­s requested additional premium increases ranging from 2 percent to 23 percent, the report found.

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