Saturday, August 6, 2016

NY State Approves Largest Insurance Rate Increase Since Start of Obamacare



The Cuomo administration on Friday announced that health insurance rates on the individual market would increase by a weighted average of 16.6 percent, the largest individual market hike since the Affordable Care Act began in 2014.

The new rates take effect in January; open enrollment on the state’s exchange begins Nov. 1.

Rates in the small group market will increase by a weighted average of 8.3 percent.

Health insurance reaction was relatively muted as insurance companies digested the news that they would collect higher premiums — though still not as high as they might have liked — and compared themselves to their competitors.

“We believe this year’s process, which provided an opportunity for plans and DFS staff to have constructive discussions about the impact of these factors, was an improvement on previous years,” said Leslie Moran, a spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association, which represents insurers. “We look forward to working with DFS to ensure the rate setting process continues to offer greater transparency.”

For years, insurers have accused the state’s Department of Financial Services of playing politics with the rates, keeping them artificially low at the expense of insurers’ bottom lines, an accusation the Cuomo administration has repeatedly denied.

This year, there was certainly more of a mind meld between the administration and the majority of insurers.

Click here for the full article.

Source: Politico and the Empire Report

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