With the nation's greatest health insurer exiting all but a few Affordable Care Act exchanges next year, few Americans may be left with fewer choices and few might see higher monthly premiums.
Experts say that will be the upshot of UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s recent announcement that it will pull out of most of the 34 states where it offers health plans on the public health insurance exchanges.
The public health insurance exchanges are online marketplaces where persons can shop for and enroll in a health policy. This is the 3rd year of operation for the exchanges, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, also called as Obamacare.
Meanwhile, health insurers stung by the high price of covering public health exchange enrollees, are hoped to request sharply higher rates for the year 2017.
In Virginia alone, 9 insurers have proposed average rate hikes ranging from more than 9% to 37%, the Associated Press reported.
In the year 2016, about 12.7 million persons enrolled in a health policy through HealthCare.gov or state-based insurance exchanges, in accordance to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And more than eight in 10 enrollees qualified for federal tax credits to make their monthly insurance premiums more affordable.
No comments:
Post a Comment