Managed care organizations operating in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace, Healthcare.gov, are set to increase premiums for their most popular coverage plans by 30% next year, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
Based on rates approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and shown in documents, the publication noted that the increase in prices will be the largest annual premium increase in recent years.
The higher premiums, coupled with expiring pandemic-era ACA subsidies, are expected to cause a twofold or even a threefold increase in health insurance payments for up to 17M Americans who purchase coverage plans through the federal marketplace.
The analysis based on average premiums for certain mid-level “silver” plans comes as the Healthcare.gov website is set to open next month, allowing Americans to compare different ACA plans during the open enrollment period, which starts on Nov. 1.
Since the launch of ACA marketplaces in 2014, Healthcare.gov premiums have risen only in 2018, when average benchmark plans climbed 34% from the prior year, according to the healthcare policy research organization KFF.
However, compared to 2018, ACA enrollees are set to face a more significant rise in out-of-pocket expenses next year, given the potential expiration of enhanced subsidies at the end of the year, a sticking point in the ongoing government shutdown.
Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV), UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), CVS Health’s Aetna (CVS), Centene (CNC), Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH), and Oscar Health (NYSE:OSCR) are among the largest insurers with ACA marketplace businesses.