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PPACA Update:
Individual Health Insurance Rate Increases in 2017
Friends,
The Individual Market "Open Enrollment" is approaching quickly and we want to give you, our valued clients, a "heads up" on what individual health insurance rates are going to look like starting 1/1/2017. We have been communicating to you about some factors that we believe will contribute to rate increases in 2017 that are much higher than in years past. Unfortunately, our predictions have come true and we have received the filed rates for the largest carriers in the state of Michigan - they are as follows:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of MI (BCBSM) - 18.7% increase
- Alliance Health and Life Insurance Company (HAP ) - 23.5% increase
- Humana Medical Plan of MI - 39.2% increase
- Priority Health - 13.9% increase
Why are these rates going up so high in 2017 you may ask? The main reason is because a component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) called the "Reinsurance Program" is expiring at the end of the year. In a nutshell, the Federal "Reinsurance" Program was in place to reimburse health insurance carriers who took on substantially high claims risk. Now that this program is going away, the health insurance carriers have no safety net against substantially high claims.
- Please CLICK HERE to see a detailed newsletter we sent out on this topic back in May
- Please CLICK HERE to see the CNBC article on this topic
Many of you may be asking yourselves (and us) what are we supposed to do with a double digit increase on a plan that is barely, if at all, affordable now? We have anticipated this increase for some time but have only now seen the actual rate increases. We will be sending out a series of strategies that we believe will protect our clients and keep their monthly premiums down as much as possible.
Please stay tuned as we continue to research and put these communications together. We truly believe these upcoming strategies will work out very well for our valued individual health insurance clients!
As always, we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to assist you with your health insurance needs! You can contact the professionals at Altruis Benefit Consulting using the information below if you have any general concerns about your coverage, Open Enrollment, or Health Care Reform in general. We look forward to hearing from you!
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