Washington and Oregon have both found that rates will be considerably lower than initially predicted.
The Affordable Care Act has just received a boost, as two northwestern states revealed that health insurance companies have submitted applications for selling on the state exchanges at rates that are considerably lower than what some execs had forecasted for these marketplaces.
These marketplaces are expected to bring coverage to many of the 49 million uninsured Americans.
In doing so, the design was meant to help to curb the extreme spending that has been caused by the previous forms of healthcare. However, Congressional Republicans in opposition to this law had cautioned against the creation of the health insurance exchanges and other primary regulations, as they said that it would cause premiums to rise. The reason for this is that insurers would be forced to extend coverage to those with pre-existing conditions – among others – and that this would lead the uninsured to become incapable of affording coverage even when the federal subsidies were taken into account.
However, reports fro
m two states are already in saying that the health insurance rates will be lower than expected.
The Washington Healthplanfinder has been notified by nine insurers that they intend to offer their 57 plans on this state health insurance exchange. The premiums, deductibles, and coverage options that they have now submitted are different from those that had previously been predicted in the state. That said, the state has yet to evaluate these submitted plans in order to make certain that they confirm to the “essential health benefits” of the law, such as preventive care coverage.
According to Michael Marchand, a spokesperson for the Washington health insurance exchange, “We were pleasantly surprised at how great the rates look,” adding that “After subsidies many people will pay even less, and they’ll get more benefits” than are offered in many current policies.”
Similarly, Cover Oregon, the health insurance exchange for that state, has attracted the submission of plans from 12 insurers to sell on the marketplace, according to Lisa Morawski, a spokesperson for that exchange. Vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, Gary Claxton said that they were “much more reasonable than some people had been predicting.”
