The players
Nine private insurance companies have applied to offer plans in Georgia through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace for 2015 — up from five insurers this year. That number could change, however, since the state Department of Insurance must first approve proposed premiums before insurers may sell on the marketplace.
Here’s who is looking to play ball:
Returning:
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia
Alliant Health Plans
Kaiser Permanente of Georgia
Peach State Health Plan
Humana
New:
Assurant Health
Cigna
Coventry
UnitedHealthcare *
* UnitedHealthcare has not yet filed its proposed premium rates with the state Department of Insurance.
About the Health Insurance Marketplace
The Health Insurance Marketplace, a key element of the Affordable Care Act, is a website on which consumers may compare the prices of dozens of health plans offered by private insurance companies. People can also learn whether their income qualifies them for federal tax credits to help lower the cost of premiums or whether they qualify for Medicaid, the government health program for the poor.
More than 314,000 Georgians signed up for marketplace plans in its first year of operation. Nearly 85 percent of those have paid their first premiums. Slightly more than 80 percent qualified for tax credits to lower monthly premiums.
Nationwide, more than 8 million Americans have signed up for marketplace plans. The federal government runs all or a portion of marketplaces in 34 states, while 16 states created their own.
The proposed open enrollment period to buy coverage for 2015 is Nov. 15 through Feb. 15 of next year, according to HealthCare.gov.
Thousands of Georgians who bought coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace could see only modest increases in monthly premiums next year, despite earlier predictions of massive price hikes.
Indeed, prices may even dip for some people in 2015, the Health Insurance Marketplace’s second year of operation, according to proposed insurance rates released this week by the Georgia Department of Insurance. Even so, critics of the health care overhaul remain skeptical that the marketplace will be sustainable in the long run. And some consumers may still see significant increases, depending on where they live and which plan they choose.
Four new players have applied to join the marketplace, bringing the number of insurers to nine next year if the state approves them all, a preliminary review of the data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows. That, experts say, means more competitive prices and options for consumers.
The modest premium increases and heightened competition have helped put to rest many of the fears insurers had in the beginning, said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Every step of the way with the Affordable Care Act, opponents have pointed to potential problems, and in many cases those potential problems have not panned out,” Levitt said.
Nationwide, about 8 million people signed up for marketplace plans through HealthCare.gov — surpassing expectations despite the website’s disastrous roll out last fall. The website is a key element in the health law’s goal of extending coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
More than 314,000 Georgians signed up for marketplace coverage. That number could grow by 100,000 or more next year, said Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University.
People are becoming more familiar with the marketplace and the tax penalty for not buying coverage, which will drive more people to it over time, Custer said. (The tax penalty increases over time.)
And insurers are eager to gain their business.
Premiums proposed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia reflect an average rate drop of 7 percent, the state filings show. Two other insurers that currently offer marketplace plans, Kaiser Permanente and Humana, expect single-digit increases in their average premium rates next year.
That’s a far cry from the double-digit growth historically seen in the volatile individual market pre-Obamacare, experts and consumer advocates say.
In the past it wouldn’t have been unusual for someone with individual insurance to see premiums spike by 60 percent after undergoing a major medical treatment or being diagnosed with a chronic disease, Custer said. Others may have been kicked off of their insurance plans altogether just for being sick.
Under the Affordable Care Act, people with pre-existing conditions may no longer be denied coverage, and individuals may not be charged exponentially more because of their age, gender or health.
Preliminary rates for 2015 appear to be much lower than those before the health care overhaul, said Cindy Zeldin, executive director of nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future.
A sampling of proposed rates for metro Atlanta by the AJC shows a mix of prices declining for some plans and modest increases. State insurance officials must approve rates by early September.
Initial rate filings by insurers in other states seem to be following suit with proposed rates showing single-digit or low double-digit increases, said Levitt with Kaiser.
That conclusion contradicts predictions by many conservatives.
Conservative blogger Betsy McCaughey, who calls herself the “Liberty Belle,” wrote in March that “consumers reeling from ObamaCare premium shock are in for another jolt when the 2015 rates come out… . Insurance executives already are warning about double- or triple-digit hikes for next year.”
Other critics of the Affordable Care Act say the law still has much to prove.
Right now, the federal government is paying to offset losses for insurers that end up with a greater share of sick consumers, but that extra help eventually goes away, said Kelly McCutchen, CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. It’s also unclear whether the penalties from the law’s mandate that almost every American have insurance will be enough to prod healthier, younger people to buy coverage, McCutchen said.
He added that it’s simply too early to tell whether the marketplace will ultimately succeed.
“I’m glad that premiums are not going up dramatically,” McCutchen said. “But I don’t think that necessarily means Obamacare is a success.”
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