For consumers that get tax subsidies in the Obamacare exchanges, out-of-pocket premiums will remain steady even if insurers raise prices next year. But the subsidies could fall if insurers offer lower-cost plans.
The back-loaded enrollment process for the Obamacare exchanges gives insurers far, far less information about their new customers than usual.
Health insurers such as WellPoint Inc. that plan to hike prices on their Obamacare policies more than 10 percent in 2015 will have a much harder time than usual making their case to regulators.
For 2014, at least, Obamacare's dreams of expanding individual insurance coverage in Indiana have simply failed. There's no getting around it.
Employees, rather than employers, will soon choose their own health insurers—either through the Obamacare exchanges or through private exchanges. Does that mean health insurance brokers, the people who match up employers with insurers, will no longer be needed?
Rich employer benefits are not always so attractive, sick patients are not always money losers for insurers, and hospitals and doctors are now health care preventers rather than health care providers. This is the bizarre world to which Obamacare has brought us.
Since WellPoint says it’s not losing money on the exchanges—at this point—that’s encouraging news for those who would like the Obamacare exchanges to remain a viable option.
Enrollment in November was about four times faster than in October, but it will need to be about 12 times faster through the end of March to meet federal projections.
Hoosiers who sign up for “zero premium” health insurance in the new Obamacare exchanges might end up leaving thousands of dollars on the table. An estimated 250,000 uninsured Hoosiers could qualify for health insurance in the Obamacare exchanges that would cost them nothing—at least upfront.
Come January, UnitedHealthcare, the second-largest health insurer in Indiana, will have no major-medical policies to sell to individual Hoosier customers.
So-called “zero-premium plans” are priced in such a way that their premiums would be no greater than the federal tax subsidies that low-income buyers could claim.
Only four health insurers are offering policies in the Obamacare exchange in Indiana, whereas 17 have withdrawn from the market since 2010.
The premiums offered by health insurers participating in the Obamacare exchanges put Indiana among the 10 most-expensive states in the country, according to data released last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield President Rob Hillman expects a slow start to the Obamacare exchanges, with fewer than one-third of uninsured people buying coverage there.
Most of Indianapolis’ major hospitals and physician practices will not be available through Anthem’s exchange plan, but instead will be working with a health plan run by Indianapolis-based MDwise Inc.
Even in the face of alarmingly high hospital prices, no one should conclude that hospitals are the bad guys in the health care system. Hospital executives are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing as the business leaders of their institutions.
Starting with this post, I’m going to periodically give you a peek at my reading list. I’ll highlight reports and reportage that I have found either helpful or provocative. I hope you do, too.
Founding principal of 29-year-old Borshoff advertising agency, Myra Borshoff Cook, 65, and senior principal Erik Johnson, 62, have sold their ownership interest in recent years to three top executives at the firm, all of them women.
Even with premiums doubling from 2012 to 2014, Obamacare’s subsidies will offset premium increases for most Hoosiers buying health insurance via the new federal exchanges.
