A few weeks ago supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were touting the good news that premiums for plans on California's state-created insurance market would only increase 4 percent next year.
Things aren't looking quite so good in Florida, where insurance officials recently announced that premiums for plans on the state's federally-run exchange will increase by 9.2 percent. The Sunshine State boasts an exchange enrollment of 1.6 million — the highest in the nation.
Florida's premium increase far outpaces general economic growth, but is still lower than the 13.2 percent increase its enrollees saw for 2015 and it is far lower than some of the dramatic hikes that insurers in other markets have threatened in recent months. In North Carolina, for instance, Blue Cross Blue Shield recently announced it would raise premiums by a whopping 35 percent.
Although Florida's population is only half the size of California's, its exchange enrollment likely surpassed the Golden State's in part because of the way its political leaders responded to the PPACA. While California's Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, accepted federal funds to expand his state's Medicaid rolls, Florida's Republican governor, Rick Scott, rejected Medicaid expansion, pushing many low and moderate-income people onto the exchange.
According to federal data reported by the Orlando Sentinel, 94 percent of Floridians on the exchange receive federal subsidies to pay for the insurance. Premium hikes might not hit consumers very hard, since they may largely be paid by increased subsidies.
"If a person or family is already receiving a significant subsidy and if their income doesn't change much, the vast majority of the premium increase will be paid for by additional subsidy increases," Wes Fisher, the owner of the Health Care Store, which connects people with PPACA plans, told the Sentinel.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
