Covered California holding the line on rates

Covered California enrollees will see their premiums increase 4% in 2016, exchange officials said last week.

The increase is slightly less than the 4.2% jump consumers experienced between 2014 and 2015.

The average increase in Southern California is 1.8%, for a total of $296 a month, compared with 7%, or a total of $384 a month, in Northern California, according to Covered California.

“Covered California is holding the line on rates and keeping coverage within reach of hundreds of thousands of consumers, while giving them more choices than ever before,” Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said in a written statement.

Kevin Counihan, CEO of the CMS’

HealthCare.gov, echoed that sentiment, saying he was pleased by the proposed 2016 rates.

The rate announcement comes two months after 44% of Covered California enrollees reported difficulty paying their monthly premiums, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Covered California had more than 1.3 million members with active health insurance as of March. The exchange is expected to have a total enrollment of 1.5 million in 2016.

The exchange also added two new insurance companies to the mix, United-Healthcare and Oscar, a New York startup, bringing the total number of carriers to 12. Both of the new plans are considered to have sizable networks and innovative technological approaches to ensuring strong benefit packages, according to Anne Price, director of the Plan Management Division at Covered California.