According to a preview provided Monday from the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance.
The insurance department said insurers requested an average premium increase nationwide of 7.1% for individual plans covering 2023, compared with a 2% increase requested a year ago for plans this year. Approved rates will be published in October.
Many other states are watching even greater increases in the asking rate, according to ACASignups.net. New Jersey, where insurance is sold GetCoveredNJhas not yet provided information on the increases requested for the 2023 plans.
Most Southeastern Pennsylvanians who buy health insurance on the state’s exchange, known as Penny, can be spared from the worst of the increases. Independence Health Group, the region’s largest insurer, asked for relatively small increases in the 2% range for individual plans that currently cover 159,000 people.
Insurers with a much smaller presence here sought increases of up to 10% in the case of Oscar Health Plan of Pa. Other insurers in the market are Cigna and Pennsylvania Health & Wellness.
Closer to the next open enrollment period, which begins on November 1, is the question of whether the increase in financial assistance of the American Federal Rescue Plans will end as planned this year or will be renewed.
Thanks to those expanded benefits, retirees’ out-of-pocket premium costs decreased by an average of 9% for current plans. If this assistance is not renewed, coverage for the following year may not be affordable for many familiesthe department warned.
“In 2022, Pennsylvania saw the lowest uninsured rate in history, at 5.4%, thanks to the affordability and accessibility of coverage provided by the expanded subsidies of the American Rescue Plan,” said Pennsylvania’s Acting Insurance Commissioner, Michael Humphreys. “We cannot afford to slow or lose this progress.”
Nearly 375,000 Pennsylvanians obtained health insurance through Pennie during the last open enrollment period, an 11% increase over 2021. This included more than 35,000 middle-income individuals who for the first time qualified for financial assistance that reduced the cost of health coverage by an average of $252 per month, the insurance department said.
