More price hikes likely for government insurance markets

Associated Press

Early moves by insurers suggest that another round of price hikes and limited choices will greet insurance shoppers around the country when they start searching for next year’s coverage on the public markets established by the Affordable Care Act.

Insurance companies are still making decisions about whether to offer coverage for individuals next year on these markets, and price increase requests are only just starting to be revealed by state regulators. But in recent weeks big insurers such as Aetna and Humana have been dropping out of markets or saying that they aren’t ready to commit. And regulators in Virginia and Maryland have reported early price-hike requests ranging from just under 10 percent to more than 50 percent.

Increases like that probably will be seen in other states, too, as insurers set prices to account for uncertain support from a federal government led by a new president who wants to scrap and replace the law, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown Health Policy Institute. “For the consumer, they’re going to see big rate hikes,” Corlette said.

Prices for this type of insurance are already being affected by evaporating competition.

With the latest departures, more than 40 percent of U.S. counties would have only one insurer selling coverage on their marketplaces for next year, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere. That assumes no other insurers leave and none step in by the time customers start shopping for coverage in the fall.

These state-based marketplaces, known as exchanges, were established by the Affordable Care Act as a place for customers to compare prices and buy coverage, often with help from income-based tax credits. They provided coverage for about 12 million people this year.

The nation’s third-largest insurer, Aetna, said Wednesday that it will completely leave the exchanges for 2018 after projecting a $200 million loss for this year. The insurer once covered more than 800,000 people through that marketplace, but it says steep losses have forced it to rapidly scale back. It sold coverage in four states for 2017, down from 15 the previous year.