Individuals in the state who purchase plans from the exchange will see different offerings and prices next year.
People living in Indiana who use the federal exchange to purchase their plans will be seeing a new round of health care reform that will bring changes to the plan offerings and the prices that will be available next year.
Insurance companies in the state have been filing for a broad range of changes with potential advantages.
The filings that have been made with the Indiana Department of insurance have already been quite significant, and suggest that health care reform could potentially be positive for consumers, next year. The changes in rates that have been sought include changes as low as 11 percent less all the way up to 96 percent more. That said, there are a number of new entrants to the exchange that will help to improve the level of competition and mean that residents of the state may find that there are cheaper plans available next year than there are in 2014.
The latest health care reforms include five new companies aiming to join the existing four insurers on the exchange.
This will more than double the number of companies that are selling health insurance on the federal exchange to people living in Indiana. This is the largest number of new entrants that have been seen by any state in which there are public filings.
According to the Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana chief financial officer, Jim Brunnemer, “It’s good for the citizens of Indiana to have a competitive health insurance marketplace.” He added that “That seems to be bearing out for 2015.”
Among the health insurance companies that will be making their way into the exchange, one of them – CareSource – intends to charge premiums that are considerably lower than what all of the other insurers intend to charge. There was such a large difference between its premiums and those of the other providers that state regulators have raised the issue with CareSource, according to its filing information.
As a result of these health care reforms to the exchange, it could mean that many people who qualify for federal assistance in purchasing a medical plan could end up paying less next year than they are this year, according to McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm.
