District of Columbia: 3 of 4 insurance companies either lower rates or keep them stable for 2015

A second nice DC find today by contributor deaconblues; as he put it, "so much for the triple-digit increases predicted by the Republicans"...

The D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking received proposed health insurance plan rates to sell on the District of Columbia’s health insurance marketplace, DC Health Link, for plan year 2015.

Four major insurance companies – Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare – have proposed rates for individuals, families and small businesses.

 UnitedHealthcare proposed rate decreases of eight percent for all of their 2015 plans; Aetna and Kaiser Permanente proposed a mix of rate increases and decreases resulting in a slight overall net decrease for Aetna and a slight overall net increase for Kaiser; and CareFirst proposed rate increases for all plans. Most of the individual plans and all small business or “SHOP” plans reflect increases greater than 10 percent.

While that last item about CareFirst raising rates over 10% puts a damper on the good news, it may not be final:

The department will review the rates and may make adjustments to what was filed. Insurers can also file revised rates. Last year, three of the four insurance companies (Aetna, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare) lowered rates after their initial rate filing. When final, the rates will be posted on the department’s website at disb.dc.gov.