A recent analysis has shown that in 2010, the most expensive individual health rates in the country were in Massachusetts and Vermont, with premiums up to and higher than $400 per month per person, which is about twice the average of the country.
The information was collected by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which drew the data from the insurance company filings to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and discovered a significant discrepancy in the rates charged from one state to the next.
The researchers are referring to their analysis as “important baseline that consumers and policymakers can use to gauge the state of insurance affordability prior to the full implementation of health reform.”
The state with the lowest premiums, according to the analysis, was Alabama, which had an average of $136 per month per person. Similarly, Delaware, California, and Arkansas showed an average monthly premium per person of under $170. Other states with very high monthly premiums per person included New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, where customers paid between $344 and $364.
The foundation has predicted that in 2014, this difference in premiums among the states is likely to become a bigger problem, as the country begins its purchasing exchanges to allow customers to use the internet to perform price comparisons, and as a result of new legislation that will require insurance companies to cover anyone who applies, despite any pre-existing conditions they may have.
It should be noted that the analysis did not involve results from New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, or Oklahoma.
