Health Connector member survey finds 88 percent have used new coverage, one in five have used preventative services previously deferred
August 28, 2024 – A new report published today by the Health Connector shows that the ConnectorCare pilot expansion enabled access to lower-cost health insurance to over 51,000 Massachusetts residents and many new participants benefit from the program’s financial protections.
The pilot expansion, part of the Fiscal Year 2024 state budget, is available to residents for Calendar Years 2024 and 2025. The expansion lifted income eligibility limits to the program from 300 percent to 500 percent of the federal poverty level – from $43,740 to $72,900 for an individual, and from $90,000 to $150,000 for a family of four.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California announced that the statewide weighted average rate change for dental plans offered through the marketplace in 2025 will be 1.55 percent.
Covered California also announced that consumers will have more choice among dental plans with the addition of a new dental carrier, Humana, that will offer full statewide coverage in 2025.
Affordable Care Act Marketplace Coverage for the Self-Employed and Small Business Owners
Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, self-employed workers and small business owners had limited options to purchase affordable, high-quality health coverage. While most Americans obtained health coverage through their jobs, self-employed workers and small business owners often needed to purchase health coverage on their own, in which case quality coverage was expensive and sometimes denied.
The Affordable Care Act established Marketplaces in all states beginning in 2014. Self-employed workers and small business owners, as well as anybody else who does not have other access to affordable health coverage, can purchase it on their own and can qualify for tax credits if their premiums would otherwise be unaffordable as a share of their income.
In May 2024, 80,855,947 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, a decrease of 840,795 individuals (1.0%) from April 2024.
73,793,274 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid in May 2024, a decrease of 846,948 individuals (1.1%) from April 2024.
7,062,673 individuals were enrolled in CHIP in May 2024, an increase of 6,153 individuals (0.1%) from April 2024.
As of May 2024, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has decreased by 13,012,059 individuals (13.9%) since March 2023, the final month of the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.
Medicaid enrollment has decreased by 12,937,285 individuals (14.9%).
CHIP enrollment has decreased by 74,774 individuals (1.0%).
Between February 2020 and March 2023, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP increased by 23,023,434 individuals (32.5%) to 93,868,006.
Medicaid enrollment increased by 22,681,263 individuals (35.4%).
CHIP enrollment increased by 342,171 individuals (5.0%)
Normally, states will review (or "redetermine") whether people enrolled in Medicaid or the CHIP program are still eligible to be covered by it on a monthly (or in some cases, quarterly, I believe) basis.
However, the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), passed by Congress at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, included a provision requiring state Medicaid programs to keep people enrolled through the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE). In return, states received higher federal funding to the tune of billions of dollars.
As a result, there are tens of millions of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees who didn't have their eligibility status redetermined for as long as three years.
Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.
Every year, I spend months painstakingly tracking every insurance carrier rate filing nationally for the upcoming 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:
After last year's near-chaos on Virginia's individual market, things seem to be much calmer & less interesting this year. The premium increases for 2025 being requested by individual market carriers have a weighted average of 4.0%, while small group market carriers are asking for 6.8% increases on average.
The most noteworthy news for 2025 is that Aetna Life Insurance (their EPO division) is exiting the Virginia market, although Aetna Health (HMOs) is sticking around.
UPDATE: I thought Piedmont was also pulling out in 2025, but it turns out they left Virginia's individual market last fall at the very last minute.
In addition, it looks like Aetna is pulling completely out of the small group market, as is Innovation Health and, again, Piedmont Community.
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:
Via the New York Dept. of Financial Services, the preliminary, weighted average rate increases being requested for individual market health insurance policies for 2025 sound bad: 16.6% overall according to DIFS. I get a slightly lower weighted average of 16.2%, but it still ain't pretty.
Two of the highest increases are for carriers which are only offering policies off-exchange next year and which have fewer than 100 enrollees each anyway (Aetna and UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co. of NY); I assume they're both winding down their operations in the state.
As for the rest, they range from requested average increases of "only" 8.8% for the other UHC division to a stunning 51% rate hike by Emblem (HIP). The justification summaries are below the table.
It's important to remember that these are not final rate increases--New York in particular has a tendency to slash the requested rate hikes down significantly before approving them.
