Michigan: Weighted 2016 rate increase requests appear to be 9.8%

Right off the bat, I want to clarify that I might have misread some of the numbers here; while some states provide the per-company average rate change requests in a nice, simple table format, I had to wade through a mountain of forms at the SERFF Filing Access Database to hunt all of these down, and there seems to be little consistency from company to company about the formatting of the documentation, etc etc. It's possible that I've confused a Small Group filing for an Individual one, for instance, and I may have misunderstood the current enrollment number for one or two companies. Finally, in one case (Physicians Health Plan), their 2016 rate request seems to have been redacted for some reason. Fortunately, they only appear to have around 600 enrollees anyway, which means any change in their rates would barely move the state-wide needle at all anyway.

With those caveats out of the way, assuming I have these numbers straight, here's what it looks like...and remember, these are requested changes only; they still have to be approved:

Again, assuming that all of my numbers (or at least all of the major ones) above are accurate, it appears that the requested average 2016 premium rate increase on the individual market in Michigan next year is around 9.8%. The main companies to keep an eye on, of course, are Blue Cross Blue Shield and Blue Care Network (which are really just the PPO and HMO divisions of the same comapany), which make up a combined 66% of the state-wide market. Those two are seeking around 9.7% and 11.3% increases respectively.

While anything above, say, 6% or so is a bit disappointing, it's at least no worse than the average annual rate increase prior to the ACA (which averaged around 10-12% per year already). Also, again, these rate changes have to be approved by the state regulators first (I assume this is the insurance commissioner's office).