Sorry about the headline, but it's kind of difficult to focus on stuff which seems pretty mundane at the moment.
Still, it is part of my job to analyze the annual weighted average premium rate changes for ACA individual & small group policies to the best of my ability, so I'm doing that.
The final/approved rates for 2025 mostly come from the federal rate review database, although in some states they come directly from their insurance department website or the SERFF database.
Oddly, the federal rate review database still only has partial data for Oklahoma and Tennessee, and none at all for Wyoming, even though we're nearly a week open enrollment, so I can't plug those in yet. Huh.
You'll have to forgive me my poor metaphor below, but it's the best I can think of at the moment. I've been awake for 29 hours straight now, as I woke up at 5am yesterday for a 15-hour shift as a poll worker in Pontiac, Michigan, and, like many of you I'm sure, I was unable to sleep at all last night. I just got off a devastating phone call with my son who's a freshman in college who doesn't understand why what just happened...happened.
There's going to be a mountain of digital & physical ink spilled and a cacophony of talking heads on the Sunday morning shows yapping about What Went Wrong, yadda yadda yadda. Most of it will be bullshit. Some of it will be accurate.
Since writing about healthcare is my thing, and writing about the ACA specifically is very much in my wheelhouse, I'm going to put my take on this into healthcare risk pool terms. Besides, assuming the GOP also keeps control of the House, the ACA is likely gone (and even if they don't, it's about to be radically gutted via regulatory actions anyway), so I might as well.
