Today’s CT Health Insurance Exchange/Access Health CT board
meeting included a report from Wakely actuaries hired by the exchange to review
rate proposals from health plans applying to offer coverage in the exchange.
According to Wakely, plans have filed numerous revisions lowering their rate
proposals, largely in response to each other and questions from the CT
Insurance Dept. in their review. Despite that, in contrast to many other state
exchanges, unsubsidized rates will be rising sharply from this year’s level. In
examples comparing 2013 premiums with 2014 for five consumer examples, impact
varied considerably. For example, single males age 21 not eligible for
subsidies (over $45,900 annual income) can expect premiums to more than double
for a bronze plan. Half the examples of people eligible for modest subsidies
will also see their premiums rise, also more than doubling for that single
young man now at 350% of the Federal Poverty Level. However some consumers
eligible for the most generous subsidies, may see no premiums. While
assumptions the rates are based on vary widely between plans, the final rates
are remarkably similar with fairly little price difference between plans. Most
plans that will be offered on the exchange are bronze level (covering 60% of
medical costs on average). Of the individual coverage examples given by Wakely,
the lowest premium cost was from Aetna in 14 of 15 examples.
In other news, the exchange announced they have hired a
director for the All Payer Claims Database, Tamim Ahmed, PhD Economics. He has
experience in data analysis and risk adjusting rates.
