Arkansas is a problematic state for many reasons, but I have to give their insurance dept. website high praise for posting their annual rate filings in a clear, simple & comprehensive fashion (which is to say, not only do they post the avg. premium changes for each carrier, they also post the number of covered lives for each, which is often difficult for me to dig up). Better yet, they also include direct links to the filing summaries and include the SERFF tracking number for each in case I need to look up more detailed info.
Anyway, there's nothing terribly noteworthy in the 2024 filings, in which AR carriers are seeking an average 5.0% rate hike on the individual market and 5.5% for small group plans. USAble HMO is launching a new line of HMO insurance products in the state next year (called "Octave" I believe) but otherwise it looks pretty calm.
Back in February, I wrote about a bill introduced into the Illinois State Senate by Sen. Laura Fine (SD-09) which made my heart sing:
Amends the Department of Insurance Law.
Provides that the Department of Insurance shall establish the Office of the Healthcare Advocate.
Provides that the Office shall be administered by the Chief Health Care Advocate, who shall report to the Director of Insurance.
Amends the Illinois Insurance Code and the Health Maintenance Organization Act.
Provides that all individual and small group accident and health policies written subject to certain federal standards must file rates with the Department for approval.
Provides that unreasonable rate increases or inadequate rates shall be modified or disapproved.
Provides that when an insurer files a schedule or table of premium rates for individual or small group health benefit plans, the insurer shall post notice of the premium rate filings and a filing summary in plain language on the insurer's website.
Provides that the Department shall post all insurers' rate filings and summaries on the Department's website.
Provides that the Department shall open a 30-day public comment period on the date that a rate filing is posted on the website.
Shapiro Administration Working With Community Organizations To Help All Pennsylvanians Amid Major Federal Changes To Medicaid Renewals
Reading, PA - Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) Acting Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh joined representatives from the Berks Community Health Center and Pennie® today to highlight how the Shapiro Administration, Pennie, and community organizations are collaborating to support Pennsylvanians through federal changes to Medicaid and CHIP renewal requirements so they can protect their health and stay covered.
I'd never heard of Illinois state Senator Laura Fine before now. I know absolutely nothing else about her besides her being a Democrat who represents IL Senate District 9.
Unfortunately, Mississippi is one of the states which provided zero useful rate filing data for my purposes (preliminary or final) prior to the 2023 Open Enrollment Period launching, so I had to wait until now to post anything about it.
The only data I have is from the federal Rate Review website, and even the filing forms there are heavily redacted, so all I can put together are unweighted averages for the 2023 calendar year.
With that in mind, unsubsidized individual market enrollees are looking at average increases of around 5.3%, while small group rates are set to go up about 1.6% overall.
They break out the filings not between Individual and small group markets or on- vs. off-exchange policies, but between rate increases over and under 10%. Normally that would be fine, but they also have multiple listings within each market for several carriers; HMO Louisiana, in fact, has 11 entries, each for a different product line, making it tedious and difficult to piece together the weighted average rate change and current enrollment for the carrier as a whole.
Not that any of that matters this year, as they don't appear to have posted any of the ACA-compliant individual market filings there anyway. I had to rely entirely on the federal Rate Review site, and the filings there still don't include enrollment data for most carriers, so the averages below are all unweighted only:
Alaska is also a sparsely populated state with only two carriers on their individual market and four on their small group market. 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 2,200 enrollees, which seems about right given Alaska's total on-exchange enrollment of roughly 23,000 people).
However, the final/approved rate filings for 2023 are out now that we're into the Open Enrollment Period, and while Premera saw a slight reduction in their rate hike, Moda's are jumping from a 4% increase to a whopping 12.1%. Wow.
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 (15) and small group (20) markets.
The bad news is that it was extremely difficult to acquire Wisconsin's 2023 rate filings prior to the actual Open Enrollment Period launching this morning.
Overall, individual market premiums for unsubsidized enrollees are going up around 7.7%, while small group market rates are increasing by an unweighted average of 8.9%.
It's worth noting that two carriers (Health Tradition and Network) appear to be dropping out of the small group market, while one of the individual market players, Children's Community Health Plan, is changing their name to...Chorus Community Health Plan for whatever reason.
Massachusetts, which is arguably the original birthplace of the ACA depending on your point of view (the general "3-legged stool" structure originated here, but the ACA itself also has a lot of other provisions which are quite different), has 11 different carriers participating in the individual market. MA (along with Vermont) has merged their Individual and Small Group risk pools for premium setting purposes, so I'm not bothering breaking out the small group market in this case.
Gov. Whitmer Encourages Michiganders to Take Advantage of Savings on New Health Plan Choices During Open Enrollment
November 01, 2022
(LANSING, MICH) Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) Director Anita Fox are reminding Michiganders that the annual Health Insurance Marketplace open enrollment period begins today and runs through January 15, 2023. With savings still in effect making health insurance more affordable for more Michiganders, new grants for free local help, and more plan options than last year, shopping for health insurance has never been easier.
