Nov. 1, 2021 – Open Enrollment for 2022 health insurance begins today at the Massachusetts Health Connector, with more opportunities for enrollees to find financial assistance with their monthly premiums.
Open Enrollment runs through Jan. 23, 2022, with a deadline to apply, pick a plan, and make a first premium payment by Dec. 23, for coverage to begin Jan. 1, 2022. Open Enrollment is the time when individuals without health insurance can find coverage through the Health Connector without a qualifying reason.
“Access to affordable health care for individuals and families in Massachusetts is vital,” said Marylou Sudders, Secretary of Health and Human Services and Chair of the Health Connector’s Board of Directors. “Massachusetts has the highest insured rate in the nation, and Open Enrollment offers individuals the opportunity to apply and choose a coverage plan that meets their needs and provides security for their health and wellbeing.”
More Options, Expanded Savings Available Now During Washington Healthplanfinder’s 2021 Open Enrollment Period
Beginning Monday, Nov. 1, Washingtonians seeking health coverage can shop, compare and sign up by visiting Washington Healthplanfinder, the state’s online health insurance marketplace. The annual open enrollment period allows all new and existing customers a chance to sign up or change health plans for the upcoming year.
“As our communities begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we know Washingtonians are looking toward the future,” said Exchange Chief Executive Officer, Pam MacEwan. “The security of health care coverage is an important part of the way forward for Washington. We encourage anyone looking for coverage to come take advantage of new options and more savings than ever before.”
Open Enrollment Period for Get Covered New Jersey Begins Nov. 1, With Record Levels of Financial Help Available to Make Health Insurance More Affordable
Majority of consumers receiving financial help can find a plan for $10 a month or less
More options available to consumers for 2022, Residents can preview available plans now at GetCovered.NJ.gov
TRENTON — The Murphy Administration announced today the Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Period at Get Covered New Jersey (GetCovered.NJ.gov), will begin Monday, Nov. 1st, with more plan choices and record levels of financial help available to make health insurance more affordable. Residents can view available 2022 plans and compare costs now, before the enrollment window opens, using the Get Covered New Jersey Shop and Compare tool.
WHAT: Open enrollment begins today on NevadaHealthLink.com, the online health insurance marketplace operated by the state agency, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (Exchange), that connects Nevadans to quality, affordable health and dental plans. For this Plan Year 2022, Nevadans can shop 126 qualified health plans. All plans are designed to fit each individual’s budget and health needs.
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Today, November 1, marks the beginning of MNsure’s open enrollment period. Open enrollment refers to the once-a-year opportunity when all Minnesotans can enroll in affordable, comprehensive health and dental coverage through MNsure, Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace.
This year, Minnesota’s open enrollment will run from November 1 until January 15, 2022, with two important deadlines:
Minnesotans must enroll by December 15, 2021, to get coverage beginning January 1, 2022.
Minnesotans have until January 15, 2022, the last day of open enrollment, to enroll in coverage beginning February 1, 2022.
“No matter where you live or how much money you earn, MNsure has health insurance options for you and your family,” said CEO Nate Clark. “MNsure offers free help from our health insurance experts so you can access all the savings you may qualify for and find the right plan to meet your needs and support your unique life story.”
Monday, November 1st was the start of the official 2022 #ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) for anyone who needs quality, affordable healthcare coverage. The 2022 OEP is by far the best ever for the ACA coverage, with dramatically expanded financial help for millions more people (including many who weren't eligible last year), reinvigorated expert, unbiased assistance, more choices in many states and counties, and FREE policies for more people than ever before.
If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it years ago but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP), it's a whole different ballgame.
Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2022:
1. RESIDENTS OF MOST STATES HAVE MORE TIME, BUT YOU STILL SHOULDN'T DELAY!
UPDATE 11/19/21: The revised Build Back Better Act passed the House of Representatives this morning, so I'm re-upping this for a few days. It now moves to the Senate where it will likely be tinkered with a bit more; if it passes there, it will then move back to the House for one more final vote before hopefully being signed into law by President Biden. Make sure to also read about some additional revisions to the bill made after I wrote this post.
The legislative text of the updated Build Back Better (BBB) bill is now available, and as I suspected, for all the understandable disappointment about what isn't part of it any longer, there's a lot more healthcare-related stuff in there than most people think. A lot of it gets kind of wonky or may seem like "small potatoes" to most folks, but pretty much everything in it would make a huge positive impact on those it benefits.
A couple of hours ago, the Biden White House posted a completely updated version of what's being described as a "framework" for his Build Back Better policy agenda, which has been significantly pared down from the more ambitious version last spring. There are three main reasons for this: Congressional/Senate Republicans as a whole; Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia; and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
There's still no way of knowing whether or not this version of Biden's #BBB agenda will pass either, but assuming it does, here's what will make the final cut:
Back in September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued several reports which touted the success of the 2021 COVID Special Enrollment Period. Thanks in part to enrollment being re-opened but mostly to the dramatically expanded financial aid provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP), over 2.8 million additional Americans signed up for 2021 healthcare coverage via the ACA exchanges nationally.
This came on top of the 12.0 million who had already enrolled during the official 2021 Open Enrollment Period from November 1st, 2020 - January 31st, 2021. All told, that's 14.8 million Americans who selected Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) via the exchanges through mid-August.
The most remarkable thing about North Carolina's 2022 ACA carrier rate filings aren't the rate changes themselves--they range from -15% to +14.6%, nothing shocking--but the sheer explosion in competition coming to both the individual and small group markets.
NC's indy market is going from five carriers to ten in one shot, with Aetna, AmeriHealth, Celtic, Friday and UnitedHealthcare all jumping into the risk pool. On the small group side, there are two new entrants: Bright Health and Friday Health Plans.
In any event, overall, the average preliminary rate increase for unsubsidized enrollees is averaging 8.7%, while small group plans are going up by an average of 9.8%.
Back in early September, I wrote a post which gained quite a bit of attention in which I ran some back-of-the-envelope math to try and answer a question which is cold-hearted and tasteless...but which, nonetheless, many people across the political spectrum have been wondering: What will the real-world impact be on the 2022 midterm elections of the Red/Blue COVID divide?
There's a lot of factors which come into play here, including political messaging, narratives and the like, but let's be perfectly blunt: What people really want to know (whether they admit it or not...some have been cruder in posing the question than others) is whether more GOP or Dem voters are dying of COVID, and how much that will impact the midterms at the ballot box.
The 4 percent weighted average rate change for Covered California for Small Business is the second lowest since 2014.
Covered California’s small-business marketplace continues to expand, with more than 70,250 members to date and double-digit percentage membership growth for the seventh consecutive year.
Covered California for Small Business also announces an expansion of its four-tier offering as employers can now choose to offer employees the option of selecting from all metal tiers effective Oct. 1.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California for Small Business unveiled the health plan choices and rates for small-business employers and their employees for the upcoming 2022 plan year. The statewide weighted average rate change is 4 percent, which represents the second-lowest annual increase in the program’s seven-year history. The rate change is lower than national projected increases for larger employers.
via MNsure (this is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but still):
Shop and Compare Health Coverage for 2022
ST. PAUL, Minn.—With open enrollment starting in less than three weeks, Minnesotans who need private health insurance can explore health and dental plans available for 2022 through MNsure, Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace.
MNsure’s open enrollment period starts November 1 and runs through January 15, 2022, but Minnesotans can use MNsure’s plan comparison tool now to preview insurance plans, compare options, and see what savings they may qualify for.
In every county, Minnesotans will have at least 19 separate health insurance plan options to choose from through MNsure.
Open Enrollment for 2022 health insurance begins November 1
New carriers and expanded tax credits give Idahoans more choices and savings
BOISE, Idaho – Open Enrollment for health insurance is just one week away. Beginning Nov. 1, Idahoans who do not have coverage through their employer and don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, can enroll in 2022 medical and dental coverage through Your Health Idaho, the state’s health insurance exchange.
Your Health Idaho will offer a record number of plans this open enrollment period with the addition of two new insurance carriers. Molina Healthcare of Idaho and EMI Health will offer plans on-exchange for the first time, giving Idahoans more choice than ever before.
“This is an exciting year for Your Health Idaho and our customers,” said Your Health Idaho executive director, Pat Kelly. “Not only do we have two new insurance carriers and a record number of plans, but Idahoans are also seeing more savings than ever before thanks to the enhanced subsidies that are only available through Your Health Idaho.”
Here's the weekly look at the rate of COVID-19 cases & deaths at the county level since the end of June, broken out by partisan lean (i.e, what percent of the vote Donald Trump received in 2020).
The case rate is pretty much the same as it was last week, with new cases running nearly 3x higher per capita in the reddest tenth of the country than the bluest tenth...
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old.
For most states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
Not too many changes were made in either market. I get a weighted average increase of 4.6% for individual market plans (MI DIFS puts it at 4.7%), while I get exactly +7.0% for small group plans (MI DIFS puts it at +7.1%).
As I noted in August, the other noteworthy changes are:
Back in August, the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) announced preliminary 2022 rate filings for the states individual and small group markets. At the time, carriers were requesting a weighted average increase of around 1.3% for indy market ACA plans and 5.4% for small group plans.
Back in August, I analyzed the preliminary rate filings for the 2022 individual & small group markets in Iowa. At the time, I was unable to run a weighted average due to only having the enrollment data for one of the three individual market carriers (and none of the small group market).
At the time, the unweighted average rate change for the individual market came in at +0.7%, while small group plans averaged out at +0.9%. Unfortunately, this isn't terribly useful since it assumes every carrier has the same market share.
More recently, Iowar regulators have approved the rate filings (with almost no changes at all)...and the SERFF database now includes the Unified Rate Review Templates for every carriers, which allows me to fill in the enrollment of each in both markets. This lets me run the weighted average rate changes.
With that data, individual market plans are going up 6.6% for unsubsidized individual market enrollees and 1.2% for small group plans on average:
As I've griped about many times before, it's confusing as hell trying to keep track of a bunch of insurance carriers which have similar names. For instance, in Kansas, they have both Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City...which are apparently considered separate corporations.
Picking on Kansas again, one of the carriers offering ACA exchange plans is called Sunflower State Health Plan...but if you look it up, you'll see that "Sunflower Health" is actually owned by Centene Corporation. Which also owns "Ambetter Health." Oh, and they also own "Celtic Insurance" as well.
In fact, Centene Corporation has no fewer than 28 other subsidiaries. Now, in some cases these may not be health insurance carriers, and in others they may simply be "product branding" instead of actual corporate subsidiaries, but it's still confusing as hell.
A week or so ago, I posted an analysis of the preliminary rate filings for South Carolina's 2022 individual & small group markets.
At the time, I wasn't able to find the actual filing forms and was thus limited to running unweighted averages for both markets, which came to a flat year over year increase in the individua market and a 4.4% reduction in small group plans.
Since then, however, I've managed to find the SERFF database filings for all carriers, and can now run weighted averages for approved rates in both markets.
Overall, they come in at a weighted average increase of 3.1% for the individual market and 2.1% for small group plans. It's also worth noting that I was wrong about UnitedHealthcare dropping out of the small group market--it looks like they're instead replacing all of their current policies with new ones, which means there's technically no actual "rate changes" since the existing offerings are being terminated and thus have nothing to compare against:
Back in mid-August I posted my analysis of Arizona's preliminary 2022 rate filings for the 2022 individual & small group health insurance markets. At the time, I wasn't able to get ahold of the actual carrier actuarial memos which include the number of people enrolled in those policies in 2021, which means I wasn't able to run a weighted average rate change for either market.
As a result, I had to go with unweighted averages, which are far less useful since how much a carrier with a huge market share changes their premiums will have a much bigger impact on the statewide average than one with only a handful of enrollees.
Arizona is a case in point: At the time, the unweighted average was a 4.8% reduction on the individual market and a 7.7% increase for small group plans.
Regular readers may have noticed that I haven't checked in on the status of #BidenCare (aka #ACA 2.0) since way back in early August. There's several reasons for this: At first I was swamped with my COVID vaccination/case/death rate project; then, more recently, I had to scramble to get my annual Rate Change project up to date.
Both of these have indeed monopolized my time, but the main reason is simply that President Biden's Build Back Better (BBB) plan (which ACA 2.0 is a part of) has gotten bogged down over the past few months due to infighting and intransigence by a handful of "moderate/centrist" Democrats in the House but especially by two Democratic Senators in particular (Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona).
(Needless to say, I'm not even mentioning any Republicans in either the House or Senate, since not a single one of them is willing to support the bill.)
It seemed a bit pointless to write up a lengthy, in-depth analysis of the latest developments on the bill when what does or doesn't have a serious shot at making the final cut kept changing every few days.
Here's the weekly look at the rate of COVID-19 cases & deaths at the county level since the end of June, broken out by partisan lean (i.e, what percent of the vote Donald Trump received in 2020).
The case rate is pretty much the same as it was last week, with new cases running 3x higher per capita in the reddest tenth of the country than the bluest tenth...
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old.
For most states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
Every year, I spend months painstakingly tracking every insurance carrier rate filing for the following year to determine just how much average insurance policy premiums on the individual market are projected to increase or decrease.
Carriers tendency to jump in and out of the market, repeatedly revise their requests, and the confusing blizzard of actual filing forms sometimes make it next to impossible to find the specific data I need. The actual data I need to compile my estimates are actually fairly simple, however. I really only need three pieces of information for each carrier:
I can't overstate how much I wish every state was as good as Pennsylvania is at not only making their annual rate filings publicly available on the state insurance dept. website, but doing so in such a clear, simple format, while also including a consistent summary page for every carrier!
As a result of this attention to transparency and detail, I was able to put together my Pennsylvania analysis pretty quickly even though they hae a huge number of carriers on both their individual and small group markets.
Aside from Cigna joining the PA indy market, not too many surprises in the Keystone State this year...approved average indy market premiums are staying nearly flat overall (+0.2%), while small group plans will cost around 4.8% more than last year on average.
Texas' annual health insurance rate filings are kind of a mixed bag in terms of transparecy. Hardly any of the carriers have Uniform Rate Review Template (URRT) forms or Rate Filing Justification Form Part II available (these are the documents which generally include the actual number of people enrolled in the policies for each market for that insurance carrier), and the Actuarial Memorandum (Part III) is heavily redacted for most of them, making it very difficult to lock in the actual enrollment numbers.
On the other hand, a few of them do offer one or both of the former documents, and in a few cases I was able to get the policyholder figures via the SERFF database. I'm operating on the assumption that each individual market policy has roughly 1.5 covered lives apiece on average.
Unfortunately, without having even that estimate available for half the carriers offering policies in Texas, I can't run a weighted average increase (it comes to +4.9% using what I have available), so I'm left (once again) with an unweighted average of around +1.5% on the individual market and +6.1% for small group policies.
There are 9 states where I've been unable to track down the actual enrollment data for individual market carriers. North Dakota is among them.
The unweighted average rate increase for 2022 is 6.0% for the ND individual market and 5.3% for the small group market, which consists of the same three carriers (UnitedHealthcare was a fourth participant in ND's small group market in 2021, but they aren't listed in the federal Rate Review database as of this writing, so I'm assuming they're pulling out).
Virginia has an extremely robust, competitive individual & small group insurance market...and in 2022 it's getting even more competitive, with three new carriers joining the individual market: Aetna, Bright and Innovation Health Plan.
Beyond that, I don't see any shocking or dramatic developments for 2022; average unsubsidized individual market premiums are dropping by 2.9% statewide, while average small group premiums are increasing by 3.6% overall.
West Virginia has the second-smallest ACA individual market enrollment total (Alaska has the smallest), while also being one of the only states left which has (until 2022) refused to use #SilverLoading in their premium pricing strategy to provide some relief to moderate-income indy market enrollees.
As a result of this and other factors, they now have the highest unsubsidized individual market policy premiums in the country (19% higher than the prior record-holder, Wyoming, which averaged $870/month in 2021), at $1,038/month per enrollee.
In 2022, this is gonna be even more jaw-dropping, as the approved rate increases for WV's carriers will average 12.8%, bringing the average premium up to a whopping $1,171/month per person.
I'm pretty sure Wisconsin has the most competitive ACA markets in the country, at least in terms of the sheer number of insurance carriers offering policies on both the individual and small group markets. A total of 37 are present at the moment, although 5 of the small group carriers don't appear on the federal Rate Review database as of yet.
Unfortunately, this is yet another state where the enrollment data has basically been buried, so I can only run unweighted average rate changes.
With that in mind, the individual market rates look to be nearly flat (dropping by 0.8% on average), while small group plans are going up 4.4%.
Vermont's 2022 rate filings are pretty straightforward: They only have two carriers in the state offering either individual or small group plans to begin with, and the insurance department clearly states not only the requested and approved rate changes, but the exact number of enrollees each carrier has.
There's one major change this year, however: After many years of having their individual & small group risk pools merged, Vermont has decided to unmerge the two (I believe Massachusetts is the only other state which has a combined indy/small group risk pool). The press releases for rate filings in each explains the rationale:
Utah has an elaborate, color-coded public database which lets you search for health insurance rate filings for not just the current and upcoming year, but also for years dating back nearly a decade. It can be a bit confusing (for instance, the "Latest Rate Changes" section on the main page is currently blank even though both the individual and small group plans for 2022 were all recently approved), but it's still a lot better than most states offer.
Between this database and Utah's SERFF listings, I've been able to put together the full requested and approved filings for every carrier in both markets, along with the enrollment numbers for each, allowing for weighted average increases.
Individual market enrollees are looking at roughly a 1% average unsubsidized rate increase, while small group plans are goin gup about 4.5% overall. From what I can tell, WMI Mutual is dropping off the small group market, but they don't have anyone enrolled in their policies right now anyway.
Unfortuantely, Illinois is another state which doesn't make it easy to analyze annual health insurance premium rate filings. There's no details on their insurance department website, their SERFF listings don't seem to include the actuarial memos or URRT forms, and even the federal Rate Review listings only include the average requested rate changes; the actuarial memos there are mostly heavily redacted.
The unweighted average rate changes requested for 2022 come in at +5.1% for the individual market and +3.5% for small group plans. It's worth noting that neither of the UnitedHealthcare listings from 2021 (on the small group market) show up in the federal database, which either means they're pulling out of the Illinois market entirely or they just haven't been added to the listings yet. Given that it's mid-October, the former seems more likely.
Like Wyoming, Alaska is also a sparsely populated state with only two carriers on their individual market and three (possibly four?) on their small group market. Also like Wyoming, Alaska's insurance department website is useless when it comes to getting rate filings or enrollment data; I had to use the federal Rate Review site to even get the requested rate changes.
Fortunately, Premera Blue Cross includes a summary which lists their enrollment numbers, and with Moda being the only other carrier on the market, I was able to estimate a weighted average (assuming Moda only has around 2,000 enrollees, which seems about right given Alaska's total on-exchange enrollment of roughly 18,000 people).
On the small group market, only three carriers are listed in the federal database; Premera Blue Cross isn't, which either means they're pulling out of the state's small biz market or they just haven't been added to the database yet.
Average rate change for unsubsidized enrollees in 2022 will be 10.6% on the individual market...except that almost every enrollee will qualify for financial subsidies this year. On the small group market, the unweighted average increase is 6.4%.
Wyoming is the smallest state and only has two carriers offering individual market policies (and just three offering small group plans). This makes it pretty simple for me.
Unfortunately, neither their insurance department website nor their SERFF filings give any indication of the enrollment numbers for any of the carriers, making it impossible to calculate a weighted average for either market. Then again, assuming a roughly even market share split, the unweighted averages should be pretty close: -4.1% individual market, +1.0% small group.
Tennessee's proposed 2022 rate filings are pretty straightforward...no new entrants or drop-outs among the carriers in either the individual or small group markets, and the SERFF filings actually include the enrollment totals for all of them in both markets (a rarity these days!).
The weighted average premium increase for unsubsidized enrollees is 4.4% for indy market enrollees and 8.9% on the small group market.
UPDATE 10/26/21: Well, it looks like all of the requested rates have been approved by the TN regulators without any changes on either market.
South Dakota's 2022 rate filings are pretty straightforward. There's still just two carriers offering policies on the individual market (Avera and Sanford), while it looks like UnitedHealthcare may be dropping out of the states small group market (they have a rate filing in the SERFF database, but it doesn't show up on the federal Rate Review database, and even the SERFF filing doesn't lis any specific rate increase or decrease).
Assuming all are approved as is, residents are looking at a 1.4% rate drop on the individual market and a 4.0% increase for small group plans.
UPDATE 10/26/21: Sure enough, it looks like all rate requests have been signed off on as is.
Given how much I've been focusing on the red/blue divide when it comes to the COVID pandemic (both in terms of cases & deaths as well as vaccinations), I figured it'd be a good idea to take a look at the case and death rates based purely on vaccination rates instead.
The following graphs are up to date as of yesterday (10/12/21). Both measure the county-level case and death rates since the end of June compared against what percentage of the population is fully vaccinated (i.e., 2 doses of Pfizer/Moderna or 1 dose of Johnson & Johnson).
I've broken the population of the 50 states +DC (~331 million people...this doesn't include the U.S. territories) has been broken out into ten brackets of roughly 33.1 million apiece.
As you can see, case rates since June are 2.3x higher in the least-vaccinated tenth of the country (under 40.2% fully vaccinated) than in the most-vaccinated tenth (66.9% or higher):
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old.
For most states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
Unfortunately, the South Carolina Insurance Dept. website isn't particularly helpful when it comes to getting the annual rate filing data for these analyses--they post a link to the federal Rate Review website and the SERFF database, but that's it...and most of the filings don't show up in SERFF, while the Rate Review database actuarial memos are all heavily redacted.
As a result, all I have is the unweighted 2022 average rate changes, which are basically flat for the individual market and down around 4.4% for small group plans.
The other noteworthy item is that it looks like UnitedHealthcare is pulling completely out of South Carolina's ACA-compliant small group market, though it's possible that they just haven't been added to the federal Rate Review database yet.
State of Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner Requested and Approved Summary for 2022 Rates in the Individual, Small Group, and Large Group Markets
The Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) has completed its review of plan year 2022 rates for the individual, small group, and large group markets. This document is a summary of the requested and approved amounts for each insurer by market.
As required by the ACA, OHIC reviews premiums in the individual and small group markets by examining the following components:
Since Delta began circulating widely in the U.S., Covid has exacted a horrific death toll on red America: In counties where Donald Trump received at least 70 percent of the vote, the virus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June, according to Charles Gaba, a health care analyst. In counties where Trump won less than 32 percent of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000.
Oklahoma Consumers Have More Health Insurance Options for 2022 ACA Plans
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) announced today which health health insurance companies will be offering plans in the Oklahoma Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace for 2022. Two new insurers will be joining the Marketplace next year giving Oklahoma consumers more health insurance options. Starting this year, consumers will also have an extra 30 days to make plan selections during the ACA Open Enrollment Period for individual health insurance plans running from November 1, 2021 through January 15, 2022.
For the small group market I don't think they even do that; I have to rely on the federal Rate Review site, which almost never provides enrollment data.
Fortunately, for the indy market at least, all of the requested rate filings are available via the SERFF database, along with enrollment figures for 9 of the 10 carriers in the market. For the tenth (AuitCare), I used an estimate based on last years' hard number. Unfortunately, I still don't know the approved rates for any of them, but it looks like the state regulators chopped them down somwhat, since the weighted average comes in at 4.8% vs. the requested 8.4% statewide.
The most remarkable thing about North Carolina's 2022 ACA carrier rate filings aren't the rate changes themselves--they range from -15% to +14.6%, nothing shocking--but the sheer explosion in competition coming to both the individual and small group markets.
NC's indy market is going from five carriers to ten in one shot, with Aetna, AmeriHealth, Celtic, Friday and UnitedHealthcare all jumping into the risk pool. On the small group side, there are two new entrants: Bright Health and Friday Health Plans.
In any event, overall, the average preliminary rate increase for unsubsidized enrollees is averaging 8.7%, while small group plans are going up by an average of 9.8%.
New Mexico's final/approved 2022 premium rate changes are now live, though the searchable database seems to be having some technical layout glitches. For some reason there's a good 5-6 entries for each carrier instead of just 2 (one for the individual market, one for small group plans); I think this is because New Mexico requires separate filings for on- and off-exchange policies, although there seem to be duplicates even then.
In any event, of the 30+ states I've written up so far, New Mexico has by far the highest average unsubsidized rate increases, at 15.5%. Most of this is due to Molina Healthcare's shocking 25.6% increase, which seems to have been approved as is. True Health is also asking for double-digit increases on the individual market.
The Small Group market in the Land of Enchantment is also in the double digits, at +11.5% on average. Presbyterian not only has two small group entries, they seem to have dramatically different enrollment numbers for each; I'm not sure what to make of that.
Back in July, I posted a summary of Washington State's preliminary 2022 ACA premium rate change filings for the individual and small group markets. At the time, WA carriers were requesting average increases of 5.5% for the former and 4.1% for the latter.
A few weeks back (Sept. 20th), the state insurance dept. issued their final/approved rate changes for 2022...but only for the individual market, and even then, only for carriers offering on-exchange policies. The small group filings and those for 3 of the 15 individual market carriers which only offer off-exchange policies are still pending review. However, those three only have a combined total enrollment of around 1,300 people, and the requested rate change for one of them partly cancels out the other two, so unless there's some truly eyebrow-raising changes to the final rates, I don't expect this to move the needle much:
Average 4.17% rate change approved for 2022 Exchange health insurance market
NJ Department of Banking and Insurance Announces More Health Insurance Offerings in 2022, Record Levels of Financial Help Available for Another Year at Get Covered New Jersey
9 in 10 enrolling on the marketplace qualify for financial help; majority of consumers receiving assistance can find a plan for $10 a month or less
TRENTON — The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance today announced that consumers shopping for 2022 health coverage this fall at Get Covered New Jersey, the state’s official health insurance marketplace, will continue to benefit from record levels of financial help available from the federal American Rescue Plan and the State of New Jersey. Consumers will also have more choice, with the entry into the market of a new health insurance company, Ambetter from WellCare of New Jersey, increasing the number of carriers offering plans on the marketplace.
Minnesota Families Will Save an Average of $684 per Year and Access More Heath Plan Choices in 2022
ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Minnesota Department of Commerce and MNsure released information today on 2022 health plan rates and options in advance of the open enrollment period, which begins November 1.
On average, Minnesota families will save $684 per year and will be able to access more health plan choices than previous years. More Minnesotans than ever before are eligible to receive tax credits to lower monthly premium costs through federal funding provided in the American Rescue Plan. Minnesotans who buy their own individual health insurance for 2022 will have access to hundreds of dollars in savings when choosing health plans via MNsure. Minnesotans will also be able to choose from more health plan options being offered through MNsure.
(Washington, DC) - Today, the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) announced the 2022 approved individual and small business health insurance rates. As a result of the Department’s review, most insurers decreased their initial rate proposals, which will save District residents more than $16 million.
“On behalf of the Bowser Administration, DISB performed a thorough review of 157 small group plans and 27 individual plans to ensure that they meet the District’s standards and provide non-discriminatory, accessible and affordable health insurance for our residents,” said DISB Commissioner Karima M. Woods.
In 1981, there was a fantastic drama starring Paul Newman and Sally Field entitled “Absence of Malice” about journalistic ethics and how people’s lives can be damaged in the wake of the public being given only part of the story, even when everyone involved believes they’re doing the right thing. It’s a great film and I highly recommend it.
A few days ago I posted an entry titled “What’s the deal with the Bloomfield Hills School Board?” in which I laid out pretty much everything I knew about the controversy here in Bloomfield Hills surrounding a list made by one district parent who strongly supports school masking mandates of other parents in the district who they believed opposed such mandates.
Since Delta began circulating widely in the U.S., Covid has exacted a horrific death toll on red America: In counties where Donald Trump received at least 70 percent of the vote, the virus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June, according to Charles Gaba, a health care analyst. In counties where Trump won less than 32 percent of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000.
The good news about New Hampshire's health insurance market is that they're the only state without its own ACA exchange which produces publicly-accessible monthly reports on individual on-exchange market enrollment. The bad news is that they don't seem to publish the actual rate filings in an easy-to-read format, which means I'm left with the federal rate review website. The problem with that is the rate filings are mostly heavily redacted, making it impossible to get the total enrollment data.
As a result, I only have on-exchange enrollment numbers for the individual market and no enrollment data for five of the six small group market carriers in New Hampshire. For the individual market, it looks like the off-exchange market only has around 7,000 enrollees, since nearly 48,000 are on-exchange.
Assuming similar ratios for the off-exchange market, that's a weighted average increase of 3.2%; if not, the unweighted average increase is just under 5.0%.
Division of Insurance announces approved health insurance plans and rates for the individual health insurance market
October 1, 2021
Division announces approved health insurance plans and rates for the individual health insurance market
Nevada Consumers encouraged to view and compare health insurance plans and rates for 2022
Carson City, NV – In preparation for Open Enrollment next month, the Nevada Division of Insurance has made public the approved health insurance rates for consumers who shop on the individual health insurance market, both on and off the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (Exchange), which is the state agency that oversees and connects eligible Nevada residents to affordable health and dental plans through Nevada Health Link.
Losing Free COBRA Premiums or Job Health Insurance? You Can Still Enroll in Health Coverage for the Last Few Months of 2021
Residents with a Qualifying Event Have Options to Get Covered
DENVER – Thousands of Coloradans will lose free COBRA premiums at the end of the month and may need other affordable coverage options. Through the American Rescue Plan Act, which passed earlier this year, many people were able to receive free COBRA premiums through September 30. Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s health insurance marketplace, is reminding residents that they can still sign up for a health insurance plan for the remainder of the year if they experience a Qualifying Life Event, such as losing free COBRA premiums this month or losing job health insurance.
